After exiting the long darkness of the Branisko road tunnel in the direction from Košice, you will be struck by a majestic silhouette of the Spiš Castle. Leaving the technical construction of the modern era, the visitor is confronted with the monument silently documenting the history. The Spiš Castle is a place that through its spirit, quite unconsciously, would evoke images of the distant past, a time of kings and subjects, clanking of medieval weapons and knight armour, and would also naturally offer you pondering over the meaning of the whole building as a placid chronicler of the times.

Area of the Spiš Castle,surrounding nature and town Spišské Podhradie.

One of the largest castle complexes in the world (4 hectares).

The Spiš Castle – being a preserved landmark – is today a matter of pride of not just the Spiš region of Eastern Slovakia, but that of the entire nation. Its significance goes beyond the borders of the country, as evidenced by the annually increasing number of visitors from both near and distant corners of the world. Its attractiveness is enhanced by convenient accessibility from the D1 Highway, but also by a high concentration of places of interest in its immediate surroundings. alongside with the Church of the Holy Spirit in Žehra, the Spiš Canonry, the village of Spišské Podhradie and the city of Levoča, the Spiš Castle creates a complex included in the UNESCO List of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage.

Chapel of Saint Elisabeth Durinska that was built in 15th century.

The films Dragon Heart directed by Rob Cohen (1992) and the Last Legion (2007) starring Colin Firth and Ben Kingsley were being shot at the Spiš Castle.

The oldest preserved written mention of the Castle comes from the year 1209. In the beginning it performed the function of a border fortress on the northern border of the early feudal Historic Hungarian Kingdom, later it became an aristocratic mansion. Over the centuries, the castle was in the hands of various noble families, and was subject to power struggle. In the year 1780, the castle complex was destroyed by fire and the Spiš Castle gradually turned into ruins. Conservationists prevented its complete deterioration, when they began conservation work on the castle complex threatened by instability of the bedrock in the second half of the 20th century.

The films Dragon Heart directed by Rob Cohen (1992) and the Last Legion (2007) starring Colin Firth and Ben Kingsley were being shot at the Spiš Castle.

A gigantic stone pattern – geoglyph – was created on the Northeast slope of the Castle Hill in the year 2008 under guidance of the Australian artist Andrew Rogers. The geoglyph shows a horse from a Celtic coin found during the archaeological research of the Spiš Castle. The pattern size is approximately 100 x 100 metres. Its line is created by a one metre high and one metre wide stone wall of travertine stones piled freely, without any binding material. The length of the wall is 800 metres, with 40 stonemasons and 80 local residents having been involved in its construction.