No. 63215
Thury Castle
Hungary
CastleRuinFor events13th century
No. 49101
No. 49101 · 47.227 N, 18.094 E
Quick summary
Pusztapalota Castle Ruins is a castle in Hungary, listed as reference No. 49101.
Pusztapalota Castle Ruins is a castle in Hungary with origins associated with the 13th century.
See all castles in HungaryPusztapalota-várrom, Várpalota, Hungary was established in the medieval period by members of the Hungarian Csák noble family.
The fortress first appears in surviving records in 1288 as part of the Csák family’s extensive holdings centred on Pusztasabolcs in Fejér county. It remained under the ownership of the Csák kin until 1326, when control of the site passed into royal hands under King Charles Robert.
The castle continued as crown property until 1350, when King Louis the Great granted it to the sons of Lőrinc Tót and their heirs. Documentary evidence names Balázs Keszi as castellan in 1409, noting he served concurrently as castellan of Várpalota, and records preserved by the Pannonhalma abbey identify Jakab Felföldi as castellan in 1440. The fortress did not play a prominent role in recorded military campaigns, though it was once well known across the surrounding district. By the sixteenth century, around the time of the Ottoman conquest of Hungary, the castle lay in ruins and its original name fell out of use, after which the place became known as Pusztapalota, literally “abandoned palace.”
Condition
The site occupies a narrow valley among the Fajdas hills about five kilometres north of Várpalota and survives as the remains of a small citadel. The overall plan reflects a compact defensive enclosure set between steep, constricting slopes, sited directly on bedrock. The fortress is described as a medieval small citadel, first documented in the late thirteenth century.
On the western side of the enclosure an inner courtyard was once bounded by defensive walls to which a multi-storey tower was attached; that tower reached three storeys in height when intact. The main tower’s masonry survives in part, with preserved wall sections that were built solidly on rock. The walls of the principal tower were substantial, measured at 2.20 metres in thickness where recorded, indicating robust medieval stone construction.
Evidence of timber structures is visible in the masonry, with rectangular beam-holes measuring roughly 0.25 by 0.25 metres pierced into surviving wall faces, showing where large wooden beams once tied floors or roofs to the stonework. The site lies in a low-lying position and formerly included a bridge that connected parts of the enclosure to the approaching ground. Today the overall remains are fragmentary, with one wall surviving visibly in situ alongside other ruined masonry and the cuttings in the rock that mark the castle’s original arrangement.
Location
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