Pauliina FlamWhen the Mountains Say “Not Today”
I woke up to dark clouds promising days full of rain. I sadly looked at my hiking boots and poles — every part of me wanted to head up the mountains, while my sanity whispered, “don’t… remember what happened last time?” Luckily, besides mountains, I’m also enthusiastic about castles. And even more luckily, I’m in the land that has some of the best ones — a few I still hadn’t seen. The rain felt like a clear message: time to change that.
The hard part was that both castles I had in mind are tricky to reach by public transport from small villages in the High Tatras. But since that never stopped me before, it didn’t stop me now either.
First, I took a train to Poprad, then to Kralovany. I had about half an hour there before my next train, so I wandered through a silent village.
No tourists, just curious dogs in neat gardens, wondering what I was doing there. On each side, soft green hills framed the view, their tree-lined ridges making everything look cozy. The road ended at the river. I stood for a moment, watching it flow, then returned to the station — once again bothering every dog with my existence.
Orava Castle: Not a Squirrel House
From Kralovany, a direct train took me to Oravský Podzámok — a village near the Polish border, forgotten by foreign tourists but beloved by film directors. On a hill above it rises Orava Castle, its towers jutting up from the stone as if they had grown there by accident (apparently a local specialty of Slovak castles).
The entry costs 9 euros, and with that you can wander through medieval chambers, old courtyards, and even secret tunnels. And if you’re Finnish — don’t let the name fool you. This is not a squirrel castle. No treehouse, no oversized nut storage. What you’ll find instead is a formidable medieval stronghold, unless we’re talking about some very fancy royal squirrels.
The first record of the castle appears in 1267, and over the centuries it kept expanding, adopting new architectural styles along the way. Being an easily spotted castle on a hill, you have to stay in fashion, after all. A fire in 1800 left it badly damaged, and it was restored after WWII. Today, the restorations honor its long history, preserving layers of Renaissance, Baroque, Gothic, and Romanesque — a time machine in stone.
Nosferatu’s Staircases
Orava Castle (still not a squirrel house) also inspired many filmmakers. The Citadel, the oldest part of the upper castle, even has a display dedicated to its roles on screen. One of those films was the reason I came here: Murnau’s 1922 black-and-white horror classic, Nosferatu. Count Orlock lived in this very castle, creeping down staircases with his long nails, casting that iconic shadow. I imagined Murnau creeping through these same halls with his camera — and here I was creeping with mine.
The “Dracula castle” truly delivers the vibe: dark chambers filled with period dresses, stone lions at the entry, and portraits of mysterious noble figures staring with heavy eyes. Honestly, if Dracula’s painting were hidden among them, I doubt anyone would notice. You’ll also spot carved chairs, a replica of Eva Thököly’s dress, and plenty of old furniture. One room pays tribute to the surrounding nature — just in case you forget you’re in the middle of forests, hills, and mountains.
Beware The White Lady
Climb further up and you’ll reach the upper castle. Today there are stairs, but once you’d have needed ropes and ladders (no wonder Slovaks produce great alpinists). Here you’ll find more paintings and, above the entry, a carving stating that František Turzo built this part in 1560. Proof that stone carries messages through centuries. And we thought writing “John was here” was a modern invention.
Like any respectable castle, this one has its ghost. You know this story: a lovely lady was wronged and murdered and now she seeks relief in dramatic entrances and scaring the shit out of people. At least she gave warnings of approaching danger — though what exactly people were supposed to do with that knowledge is unclear. Be extra careful in the shower? Not bad advice, it can get slippery.
This is the White Lady legend — one I’ve heard before in Estonia (they even have a festival around it), in the Czech Republic, and in Germany. At least. What does this tell us? She’s a very busy ghost. Also: don’t wrong nice ladies. They’ll haunt you down. Literally. Maybe not just you, but your whole bloodline — better than any MyHeritage test, following you for centuries no matter the country.
Grey Skies, Another Direction
Another day and even greyer clouds and roaring sky. I feel like my hiking poles are starting to be covered in spider’s den. Well, stormy weather does not suit mountain peaks but it sure suits dark castles on the hill. So here I am, heading another direction to see one more majestic castle. All ways start in Poprad so I make my way there and then change for a smaller train towards Stara Lubovna. In Russian this name would translate to “Old Love”. I just hope it is more like that one good ex I am friends with, not the rest of them who granted me with years of therapy
Here I am, dropped off in the middle of nowhere (my favorite hobby), just roads and fields around. I do not need to look long, just opposite is a lonely castle tower on the top of the hill. The road there takes around 30 minutes. With the sign at one point the road changes to the path, which is muddy, uneven, hard to spot among other paths, overgrown with plants and muddy. On a bright side it does take you through a refreshing forest straight to a parking lot where the castle road begins. But in case you are feeling less adventurous (or also picked the wrong shoes for today) you can skip the sign and continue by the asphalt road, you will walk just 7 minutes longer.
Stará Ľubovňa Castle: Old Love and Long Histories
Now, from the parking lot just walk straight until you see an old Castle Distillery. It showcases a history of the place all the way from 1345 (!) till nowadays. Inside the place is quite modern, it specializes in high spirits.I tried the dark beer,it was pretty usual. The food though was absolutely amazing, healthy,fresh, colorful and full of flavour. I was not hungry for dessert but could not skip it, and that was a good decision. The best thing about this place is the view from the windows: lovely meadows, hills, peaceful trees.
Borders, Pawns, and Bad Financial Decisions
On the left, opposite to the distillery one can notice an open air museum covered in old houses and medieval music. I did not go there, but by buying a castle entry one can choose a combination ticket to visit this museum too. Now, if you are hungry for a castle, just walk straight until the castle appears on your left and the road starts zigzagging, taking you closer to the ancient walls. The castle stands on a 711 metre high limestone hill and you almost rose up all of it. Just before the entry you walk a small tree alley admiring the emerging towers on your left.
Medieval music becomes louder and louder and here you are, on the castle premises. The entry ticket is 10 euros, with it you also get an English guide brochure. The area is marked with numbers, showcasing you different parts of the castle and telling their story (you can read short captures from the guide brochure).
From now on you will walk the towers and bastions of this old castle built on the turn of 13 and 14 centuries.The nowadays Renaissance appearance was brought up in a reconstruction in the 16th century. You can find artifacts like a Pawn deed from 8th November 1412. It is miraculous how this important historic document is preserved until nowadays for many centuries. It states Sigismund of Luxembourg pledging Stara Lubovna Castle and many other towns of the Spis region to Poland. He needed a large sum of money for a war against Venice. The loan was never paid and territories remained Polish for 360 years. You know you got a spending problem when you have to pawn your country. Most of us just sell an old TV on amazon. I guess he was more of a king of “loan” than a king of “land”. On the other hand, selling a TV probably would not sponsor you fighting against Venice. Unless you use Elizabethan patience and postpone war until Venice sinks.
This lonely castle,now in the middle of nowhere, was situated in a crucially important place, guarding the Polish-Hungarian border and securing the trade routes. It was logically hosting both kings meeting here in 1412. Another story of importance is that when the Swedish army invaded Poland the Polish Crown Jewels were secretly hidden in this castle for safekeeping. They rested in these dark corners, postponing their shine for 7 years. One can see the replicas of those jewels in the museum today.
Smells, Breweries, and the Best View
The most epic part of the castle is probably the gothic tower. A beautiful and probably the most dramatic part of the castle surrounded by the ruins of a gothic palace. On the lower level one can admire the armor that was used here before, it all could weigh up to 10 kg! Well, that is still less than my hiking backpack but probably less comfortable.
The upper level was a prison before and it kept hostage one adventurous peculiar soul named Moris Benovsky. He was a character, a unique person in history with a big lust for adventure. This led him to many places, but also conflicts and imprisonments. One of which was here, right behind these walls in 1768. His adventurous soul could not be kept long so he escaped these mighty walls in 1771 just to get himself in more adventures (and more troubles). This guy was then a soldier, traveled to another continent, and got himself imprisoned. Again. Basically an 18-century version of “I said I was busy”. I guess the most famous of his ventures was proclaiming himself a king of Madagascar in 1776, which then ended up to be a place where he died. Well, at least he secured himself dying a king, that’s something.
One more interesting room you can discover feels like a jump in time, because it introduces a wedding from the early 20th century. The peculiar thing here is the interactive part of wedding-smelling. You can find jars with smells inside, try them and see if you guessed right! Under the jars one can find descriptions of the ingredients. Do not worry, it is not a “someone got drunk, puked, and now guess by the smell what it is” situation, these are lovely smells of vanilla, chocolate and rosemary.
One can also wander into a renaissance palace. Here the lowest and biggest part was a brewery (i would not complain), one level up was a bakery, one smaller floor up was a kitchen and the upper level was a living room. The most peculiar thing here is the projection of the grounds that show you how the castle was built and expanded. I love all those interactive, new age projections and tasty ingredient-smelling parts! Keeps you interested to lurk behind the corners and into new bastions.
But the very best part for me was the view from the uppest tower. One must be careful on the way up since the stairs are not just narrow, the roof here is also very low and has unexpected reliefs that hitted the walker in front of me on his head. Up stairs the views are worth the struggle (not the hitted head part though). As I reached the top the rain stopped, just for this moment. The fog was moving slowly but steadily, swallowing everything under it. Few hills were already completely swallowed, but most of them were just introduced to the milky fog layers.
I watched how green spruces stood gracefully while being slowly covered by moving fog. Different layers of the mist made the hills take all shades from dark green to milky white. I just stood in awe and gazed. There was no rush, no problems, no goals at that moment: everything took a step back to make space for observing. And so I observed how the fog moved through forests and villages, covering buildings and trees. I would stay there even longer feeling grateful for this magical moment but the trip back is long and there are so many more adventures for me to seek. Just gotta stay out of imprisonment.
