Stone castles were built on the sites of original wooden castles, or nearby. Their greatest construction boom in Slovakia began in the first half of the 13th century, immediately after the Tatar incursions. King Béla IV ordered the fortification of older county castles and did not object to the aristocracy, or higher-placed clerics, building stone castles on their land, which were the only ones capable of resisting Tatar attack. Thus, over the course of the 13th century a series of castles were built which protected the integrity of the state’s territory.
In Trenčín’s Považie region a group of castles was formed to protect the north-western border of the Kingdom of Hungary. On the right bank of the river Váh, the following castles were built: Súča, Vršatec, Lednica, Bystrica (Považie castle), Bytča, Budatín and Starý hrad. The left bank of the river Váh saw the construction of the following castles: Beckov, Trenčín, Ilava, Košeca, Súľov, Hričov, Lietava and Strečno. The castles of Budatín, Bytča and Ilava were not built on a steep rock or hill. Budatín and Bytča were encircled by a moat.
Mapa hradov Trenčianskej stolice
During the 14th and 15th centuries, what were originally royal properties came into the ownership of the aristocracy, either as a security for a loan provided, or in return for exceptional services to the king. As the castles became the property of the aristocracy at the end of the 14th century, their function also changed. Instead of their original defensive function, they were used as administrative and economic centres and, as the seats of the families, they were rebuilt as showcase residences.
A further impulse for the reconstruction of the castles was the Hussite wars in the first half of the 15th century, when the use of firearms became widespread in these lands. New outer ramparts were built, reinforced by gun bastions, advance fortifications and ditches which were supposed to push the attackers back out of firing range. The Turkish incursions in the 16th century once more required the construction of new fortifications. The Italian builders who were invited to work here produced Renaissance reconstructions of castle fortifications and ensured the transformation of the interior. The Renaissance gave Gothic castle buildings a regular outer appearance. The standards of living and hygiene improved.
From the last third of the 17th century, most medieval castles began to lose their military and strategic importance. Their owners moved from the castle estates to more comfortable manor-houses. One of the reasons for the disappearance of castles was political conflict. Many castles were destroyed and burnt down; others quickly began to fall into ruin once their owners moved out.
Mapa hradov Trenčianskej stolice