Nitra Castle (, ) is a castle located in the Old Town of
Nitra
Nitra (; also known by other #Etymology, alternative names) is a city in western Slovakia, situated at the foot of Zobor Mountain in the valley of the river Nitra (river), Nitra. It is located 95 km east of Bratislava. With a population of ...
,
Slovakia
Slovakia, officially the Slovak Republic, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is bordered by Poland to the north, Ukraine to the east, Hungary to the south, Austria to the west, and the Czech Republic to the northwest. Slovakia's m ...
. It dominates the city and is a national cultural monument.
It is the seat of the
Diocese of Nitra.
History
The first fortified center on Castle Hill dates back to the
Bronze Age
The Bronze Age () was a historical period characterised principally by the use of bronze tools and the development of complex urban societies, as well as the adoption of writing in some areas. The Bronze Age is the middle principal period of ...
(1,600 BCE). In the 1st century BCE, the hill was settled by
Celts
The Celts ( , see Names of the Celts#Pronunciation, pronunciation for different usages) or Celtic peoples ( ) were a collection of Indo-European languages, Indo-European peoples. "The Celts, an ancient Indo-European people, reached the apoge ...
. After its destruction, the site was abandoned until the early Slavic period (7th-8th centuries) and at least from the turn of the 8th/9th centuries, it was permanently occupied by
Slavs
The Slavs or Slavic people are groups of people who speak Slavic languages. Slavs are geographically distributed throughout the northern parts of Eurasia; they predominantly inhabit Central Europe, Eastern Europe, Southeastern Europe, and ...
. In the first half of the 9th century, the top of the hill was protected by the wooden palisade. In the second half of the same century, the Slavs built a massive rampart made of two outer drystone walls (thickness 2 x 3m) with an internal timber structure filled with earth (3m). The original rampart was destroyed before early 11th century.
The castle was built in the 11th century on the place of an earlier fort. The core of the castle is
St. Emmeram's Cathedral with the Bishop's residence; the oldest surviving part is the Romanesque Church of St. Emmeram from the 11th century along with two other parts of the cathedral: the originally Gothic Upper Church from the 14th century and the Lower Church from the 17th century. The originally Gothic Bishop's Palace got its present Late Baroque appearance in the 18th century. There are also surviving parts of the castle fortifications, the majority of which were created in the 16th and 17th centuries and a smaller part from the Middle Ages.
The church is currently being remodeled.
Gallery
File:Nitriansky_hrad_1.jpg
File:Nitriansky_hrad_1a.jpg
File:Nitriansky_hrad_1b.jpg
References
Bibliography
*
External links
Castle of Nitra at slovakia.travel
Buildings and structures in Nitra
Castles in Slovakia
11th-century architecture in Slovakia
Tourist attractions in Nitra Region
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