12 km Castle Čabraď

 Čabraď is a ruin of a castle located near the village of Čabradský Vrbovok in the middle of Krupinská Highlands on a hill above Litava valley.

Originally this castle was called Litava. It was built in the 13th century in the village of Čabradský Vrbovok and the first written mention is from 1276.
It belongs to a group of medieval castles whose purpose was to protect the roads leading to mining towns. In the latter half of the 16th century it was
an important anti-Turkish fortress and the Turks tried to conquer it several times. Its medieval core consisted of a central tower protected by four bastions
and a castle palace that stood above the well-controlled bell tower into the upper courtyard. In the middle of the 15th century, the castle was for a short
time also the seat of the Jiskra armies. In 1511 it became the property of the Archbishop of Strikov, T. Bakócza, who, about 1520, edited and rebuilt it.
The fortification works and the expansion of the living quarters continued in the second half of the 16th century, especially in the prehab.
The castle was at that time owned by the Pálffy family, and after that it was owned by military commander Ján Krušič, originally from Croatia.
In 1622, the new military commander, P. Kohari, acquired the castle. The last reconstructions in the 17th century turned the inner castle
into a comfortable mansion. When the Kohárians moved to the newly built, magnificent house in St. Anthony in the 18th century,
the meaning of the castle quickly dropped. The bankruptcy was speeded up by the fact that the owners themselves let it burn in 1812 to prevent the castle
from being occupied by robber knights. Part of the castle is also a granary, which was built on the castle grounds in the 19th century.
On the last 19th century drawings it is still seen as a functional building, now it is like a castle in ruins.