In the valley of the river Bódva in the territory of Szendrő there were several castles created in the Middle age. The first one was built by the Bebek noble family as accomodation of the landowner in the valley.

As by the second half of the 16th century it totally became obsolete from military point of view as a replacement, the bases of a modern fortress were placed on the board plateau of the steep mountaintop based on the plans of Italian officials of the engineer corps.

Szendrő belonged to the strong castles from military point of veiw as it protected Kassa, the gate of the Northern part of the country from the foreign invasion. That was the reason why for its ownership there were serious fights between the troops of István Bocskai, Gábor Bethlen and György Rákóczi the I. against the despot ruling of the Habsburg emperor.

The last war events took place around the castle in 1703 when the soldiers of the prince could only occupy it after a long starvation blockade. Four years later Rákóczi gave an order to destroy it which was so successful that the excavations that take place at the present days could only found the trace of the basement wall.

Just few people know that the captain of the famous castle was István Zolthay in the 1570's years who fought against the Turks in Eger under the ruling of István Dobó.

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