COUNTLESS castles, intact or in ruins, are dotted across the landscape of Slovakia. But surprisingly, while the river Váh is skirted with a number of them, only very few can be found along another important Slovak river, the Hron.
One of these is Šášov castle, depicted in this postcard from 1904. It was built in 1241 soon after the period of Tatar invasions had come to an end.
Šášov had many owners and, as it usually is with castles, they were all robber knights. Well, who would not be tempted to do so with so much wealth around?
The neighbouring town of Banská Štiavnica and the nearby abbey in Hronský Beňadik were, indeed, far from poor.
Šášov castle has been in ruins since 1708 when it was blown up by soldiers of the Habsburg imperial army to prevent leaders of the anti-Habsburg rebellions from seizing it.
But why the Revište castle, only a few kilometres from Šášov, was spared has remained a mystery to this day.
