Tugas 3 - Beautiful Castle/Museum on the Hilltop

Cerveny Kamen Museum, which is placed in the castle, is located in Slovakia. It shows the visitors the design of the interiors of residences from the period of reneissance until the period of secession (from 16th century – the beginning of 20th century) in 25 rooms. Visitors can also see the library, the pharmacy, and also the chapel of Virgin Mary.

Figure 1 entrance gate of castle,

with the statue of the Virgin Mary, the patron saint of Hungary

Cerveny Kamen was established by Queen Konstancia, the widow of Czech King, Otakar Premysl I. Queen Konstancia received a huge area between river Vah and the Little Carpathians as a dowry from her father, the Hungarian king Bela III. She was interested in economic development of the area, and therefore she established not only the castle, but also the town of Trnava.

After the death of Queen Konstancia in 1240, the castle fell into her cousin, the Hungarian king Bela IV.  In 1271, the castle was conquered by the troops of Czech king, Otakar Premysl II. At the end of the 13th century Count Martin became the proprietor of the castle then sold it to Matus Cak of Trencin for the price of 200 pieces of silver and an armour for a knight and his horse in 1296.

Matus succeeded in holding the castle against the Hungarian king, Charles Robert until his death in 1321. After that the castle fell into the hands of the king again.

In 1337, Ulrik Wolfurt was the new owner of the castle whose family came from Austria. By 1440, the Wolfurts family died out by Pavol who died by sword.  It was his widow, Gitka, who became heir to the castle. A year later, she married Juraj II, Count of Svaty Jur and Pezinok. When Gitka died in 1453 it was the relatives of her second husband who were demanding the rights to the castle.

In 1468 King Matej Korvin confirmed that the rights to the castle belong to the counts of Svaty Jur and Pezinok. In 1511 they gave the castle as a pledge to the Zapolsky family for a short period of time. This period ended the establishment period of the castle.

There were some major changes when World War II broke out. The first one was that Cerveny Kamen belonged to the widow of the Palfi family from Austria. The owners of the castle and its estate were two legal bodies: a company called REOS and a Study Foundation which was established by Jan Palfi in his testament in 1907. The property that Jan had donated to the Foundation took over the first Czechoslovak Republic.  After World War II, company REOS was confiscated by the state authorities. The head of company REOS was made Alojz Konecny.

There was a new state authority formed in former Czechslovakia which called The National Cultural Commission. The National Cultural Commision which was responsible for the collection of valuable historical furniture, art works, and various objects in use as well as the specification of the libraries in confiscated castles and manor houses that were not intended for cultural purposes.  The whole castle Cerveny Kamen was confiscated in December 1949 and was proclaimed as a national cultural heritage.

It was intended to use for cultural purposes and thanks to its spacious premises it became one of the places where the National Cultural Commission concentrated the above mentioned articles. From manor house of Borcice and another 29 buildings newly owned by the state and from two monastries which were abolitioned. In may 1950, the first visitors could enter the castle-museum and have a look at the exhibition on the first floor in the south-east wing of the castle. The castelllans of castle carried out the most important repairs on the buildings in the area of the castle, admission of articles, transport of some objects and books, write down and inventory of the collections, restored the fresco decorations in the southwest wing of the castle, restored paintings and china sets et cetera.

In 1976, it was decided that an overall renovation of the castle was essential during wihch the castle would be closed to public. Between 1976-1991, apart from the general reconstruction, some archaeological research was carried out wihch was necessary in order to obtain more information and knowledge about the history of the castle.

The brickwork of the building was lowered during the construction of the new renaissance fortress. The surface of the courtyard  after the construction by the Fugger family was about 80 cm – 100 cm under the present terrain.

The archaelogical research as a matter of fact confirmed the written reports about the location of the medieval castle at the time of the arrival of the Fugger family. The first part of the exhibition was available for the visitors in 1991, and it has gradually been enlarged to its present size. The reconstruction of the buildings of castle are was carried out in the first decade of the 20th century.

Cerveny Kamen Castle should have originally been bulit on the opposite hill called Kukla. After digging out the foundations and bringing the building materials there, extraordinary things started to go on. What the builders erected the previous day was moved to the opposite lower hill every next day morning. The architects and builders did not give up,, they had orders to build up a castle on Kukla Hill which was the dominant part of the little carpathians visible even from distance.

They had no orders to build the castle on the much lower rocky hill on the opposite side of the valley. So the works continued but each night someone moved the erected part of the castle to the same place, i.e. to the above mentioned lower hill on the opposite side.

An intensive investigation started in order to find out the reason for those unexplainable happenings. It was learned from old people who remembered past times that the hill called Kukla had been the seat of secret powers, fairies, or giants for ages.

No one can see them but their existance and presence was evident to the people living in the surroundings of the hill. They could feel the magic power of the hill. The builders wanted to negotiate with the secret powers but they did not know how, so when the strange happenings continued from night to nightm they eventually surrendered.

They started to build the castle on the place where the secret powers move the building materials. From that moment everything went smoothly and they could accomplish the building of the castle successfully.

The name Cerveny Kamen means “The Red Stone” is derived from the color of the stones that can be seen on top of the hill, the towers of the medieval stone castle were also built from red stones.

This museum arranges short term exhibitions of its rich collections. The exhibitions displayed in the halls, dining room, bedrooms, and the knights’ hall give the possibility for the visitors to get to know more about the furnishing from the period of renaissance until the period of secession.

In the collection of the Slovak National Museum, Cerveny Kamen Museum there are over 13.500 various items, for example art works such as paintings, sculptures, graphics, weapons, furniture, et cetera.

Figure 2, the knights' hall.

They were moved into the museum either from various other buildings confiscated after 1948 or they belonged to the last owner of the castle from the Palfi family. Some art works were purchased private persons or bought in antique shops.

Part of them can be seen as the exhibition, however, most of them are displayed permanently in other museums of Slovakia as well as at exhibitions abroad.

My favorite ones are the “Ladies in Blue” collection. The ladies in blkue is the name for young ladies from noble families who were painted dressed in blue uniforms. They were pupils studying at the Notre-Dame Monastery in Bratislava. These young ladies got lessons in the following subjects: German literature, geography, history, maths, and handwork. Besides the clothes and hair the portaites have similar using of requisites, which reveal favourite subject of study. Can you tell which lady liked geography? (* figure 3)

Ladies in Blue