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Before our trip, I went to the UNESCO site and looked at the list of all the places in Slovakia that were preserved. Spiš Hrad (Castle) was on the list, and it is located close to Poprad, where we would be staying for five days as we did hikes in the High Tatras and Slovenský raj National Park. So of course Spiš Castle was added to our list, I love seeing old castles. The nearby historic town Levoca was also on the UNESCO list, so made a stop there too. We went to Spiš after our morning hike through Velký Sokol. We got there after a tremendous downpour had just moved through, and there was still a threat of more rain to come. The skies in my photographs are dark with clouds. Spiš itself is a crumbling ruin of a castle. The old walls remain standing, but much of the buildings have decayed. There a museum inside that has restored a couple of rooms - a kitchen, a bedroom, and the old chapel. The museum also has an armory, displaying weapons from the medieval era, and a cannon. There is a room with torture chamber implements. Spiš is huge. It takes a while to walk through all the rooms and read the museum signs. The lower bailey encloses a great expanse, the walls extend far out onto the hillside. I wonder why the castle walls are so far out, perhaps they were built to prevent invading armies from occupying that space below the castle. We did not spend long at the town of Levoca. The well-preserved city walls reminded me a lot of the walls around Bardejov. There are famous wood carvings in the church, but services were ongoing when we visited, so we did not go in. Panorama Photos: I found this map of Spiš Castle on-line. The descriptions were all in Polish, not Slovak, but the internet translated them anyway. The second picture is a sign at Spiš Castle labeling the buildings.

Single Click on any thumbnail to begin the slide show at that photograph Spiš Castle Photos