The round keep
A view over the plain to the Tatras.
Andrei Stroe — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Jakub Hałun — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Jakub Hałun — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Jakub Hałun — CC BY-SA 4.0
Spiš Castle with the town of Levoča (whose church holds the world's tallest wooden altar at eighteen metres) and the church at Žehra with its medieval frescoes — all in the Spiš region under one listing, and a single day by car covers them.
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One of central Europe's largest castles and its most striking sight: Spiš Castle occupies four hectares of a limestone hill above the plain of eastern Slovakia, visible from the motorway tens of kilometres away — vast white ruins with concentric walls and a huge round keep, a UNESCO site since 1993. It was built in the twelfth century as a Hungarian royal fortress on the kingdom's frontier, enlarged repeatedly into a complete fortified town, and withstood the Mongol invasion of 1241 — then burned in 1780 and was abandoned, leaving the imposing ruins that have been under restoration since the 1960s. The visit climbs through tiered courtyards to the round keep, which is ascended for a view over the plain with the Tatra mountains on the horizon, and a small museum of arms and instruments of torture. An hour from Poprad, and usually combined with the town of Levoča and the church at Žehra in one day — all three a single UNESCO listing.
A view over the plain to the Tatras.
A complete fortified town on a hill.
Žehra, Spišské Podhradie