Sign in with Facebook- Join for free
- Sign In
Sign in with Facebook
kit_mc Says: Putting this as a 'must see' is kind of superfluous - if you've come to Spisske Podhradie, it was almost certainly in order to see this, and anyway, it's rather diffficult to miss it, as it grandly stands on a tall rocky peak in the distance.The photos from this are great...
barryg23 Says: The Castle and Kapitual are the main attractions but the town of Spisske Podhradie is also worth exploring. There were a couple of interesting buildings and a nice main square, Marianske Namestie.
barryg23 Says: We made a mistake in exploring the Kapitula first as we missed our entry time to the Cathedral. Many buildings in Eastern Slovakia open only at specific times during the day and from what it said on the door we would have to wait another hour. Which might make it difficult...
barryg23 Says: Kapitula lies on a hill overlooking the town and opposite the castle. It was founded in the 13th century and later became the religious capital of the whole Spis area. Most of the residents were clergy until 1948, when they were evicted by the communists. There are still...
Patje Says: Visit the royal castle built in the 12th century.Opening hours:May - October: 09.00 - 19:00.November - April: On request.Fees: 100sk.
Spisska Kapitula, walled ecclesiastical settlement
kit_mc Says: Spisska Kapiutla is a walled ecclesistical settlement dating from the 13th century. It was inhabited as such until the late 1940's. It consists of just one street.We came here from Levoca by bus and got off before it arrived in Spisske Podhradie. Make sure that the driver or...
Cathedral of St Martin, Spisska Kapitula
kit_mc Says: The cathedral in Spisska Kapitula may well be closed in winter and has erratic opening hours in summer, but you'll pass anyway walking down the single street here. This was once the Spis region's religious capital, hence the cathedral.Built in the 11th century, the interior...
Helpfulness
We stopped off in this place as we had an hour more to wait for the bus to Kosice and needed a place away from the cold and to rest our weary backpacks.
We decided we'd chance some food and ordered by hazarding a guess using the German and Slovak menu. The food was really cheap and was really nice. Great spicy sauces and good quality meat.
Maybe don't eat if you are in a real rush though as the service is leisurely. But then to be honest there isn't a whole lot going on in Spisske Podhradie so you'd kind of expect life to go at that pace! Anyway, you'll wolf the food down!!
Favorite Dish: The coffee is more Turkish style coffee - you'll have to wait a while for the grinds to settle!
Spisske tajomstvo 100sk - was meat in a spicy sauce in a pancake.
Belehredsky bravcovy 90sk - was basically a pork schnitzel in a spicy sauce.
Written Jan 8, 2005
Address: Marianske nam
Getting to and from Spisske Podhradie
barryg23 Says: We travelled to Spisske Podhradie from Levoca, 15 km to the west where we were staying. There are fairly frequent buses between the towns and if you too are travelling from Levoca you can use the busstop just outside the north-eastern side of town rather than walking all the...
kit_mc Says: You can easily get to Spisske Podhradie by bus from Levoca. Buses also go onwards every few hours to Presov (1hr) and Kosice (1hr 45mins).From Levoca, the buses run maybe every half an hour from Namestie Stefana Kluberta, just outside the gates of the old town. Check the...
prleprle Says: Spisska Kapitula has main street, and that's also the only street there. In the past all that houses were property Roman Catholic church and there were appartments for monks and nuns. Canonical houses were built on both sides of one thoroughfare. They stand upright to the...
Spisska Kapitula-The Clock tower
prleprle Says: The Clock tower stands next to the gothic-baroque Bishopric Palace. It was built in 1739 and In the past it served as an entrance gate into the park. Now it has different function, that is a place where you could buy entrance ticket for the Cathedral.
Spisska Kapitula-Walls and Gates
prleprle Says: Spisska Kapitula is more or less part of Spisske Podhradie but it has its own towns walls and gates, making it separate community. That fortifications were probably already built in the 13th century. Wall is one meter wide and 4-5 meters high and have few gates.
Spisska Kapitula-St. Martin's Cathedral
prleprle Says: St. Martin's Cathedral is a late romanesque building with some gothic modifications in later periods. The construction started in 1245 and ended in 1275. From 1488-1499 a gothic chapel of Zapolsky was built to the cathedral. From 1777-1779 there were some reconstructions in...
prleprle Says: The most precious parts of this church are the murals. The entire presbytery, victory arch and the north wall are covered with them. The oldest ones were painted at the end of the 13th or at the beginning of the 14th Century. The paintings are of high artistic value, italian...
Zehra-Church of the Holy Spirit
prleprle Says: Zehra is an small village in vicinity of Spissky hrad. In fact, village could be easly seen from the tower of the Spissky hrad. While Spissky hrad is visited by many, Spisska Kapitula by some, nobody comes to Zehra, although all 3 places are under UNESCO patronage. The main...
Helpfulness
Favorite thing: Without a doubt the highlight of the town and perhaps the whole region, Spis Castle is what draws most visitors to Spisske Podhradie.
The castle lies on a hill about 1.5 km north of the town. It's easy to get there. Walk north beyond the cemetery and take the turn left ebfore the train station. The castle lies a further kilometre up a mildly steep hill. The fantastic views of the castle on the way up more than make up for the pain of climbing the hill. I think there is also another approach to the castle by road from the east.
It cost only us a few SKK to enter the castle and we had an hour to explore it until closing time. Getting to the entrance is only part of the climb. The summit of the castle and even the main courtyards are a good bit higher. As you climb to the top you realize just how good a strategic position the castle and also how difficult it must have been to attack from below.
Much of the castle is in ruins though the lookout tower ss still there. Before we reached it we passed the main courtyard where there are toilets, drinks, snacks and souvenir shops. There was also a rather strange sign warning visitors that the castle closed at 6 and it had a picture of dogs and a gun! So we made sure we were finished by 6.
We climbed the tower to take in the views from the top. Inside the tower there are pictures of the Castle and of Pophradie in olden times. It's a fairly narrow squeeze to the top but we made it easily enough. The views at the top are breathtaking but unfortunately I have none of these pictures as I lost my camera in Slovensky Raj the following day.
Fondest memory: But I can still recall the view. We could see all of Pophradie below as well as the Kapitula beyond the town on another hill. In other directions you can see the other towns of the region. This must be one of the highest points of the region and as most of the nearby towns are low lying we could clearly see them. We would also see Tatra mountains in the distance.
From the tower we also got a good idea of the layout of the castle. We could see parts inaccessible orout of bounds to visitors as well as much of the parts we had earlier walked through. They seemed so much lower. This lookout must have been ag great spot in olden times for seeing attackers.
Beneath the tower there was an exhibiton with armoury, some history of the castle and a list of all the UNESCO sight worldwide. We explored some of the rooms in the castle and took in more of the excellent views.
Updated Sep 16, 2006
Sponsored Links
Spisske Podhradie is a small town in Eastern Slovakia about halfway along the road between Poprad and Presov. The town is very popular with travellers in the region as it contains one of Slovakia's......
It's the landscape ABOVE you'll be staring at!
The main reason most visitors come to Spisske Podhradie is to see the amazing castle (Spis Hrad) that looms above the town. Pretty much our whole itinerary in Slovakia had been geared around our trip...
Spissky Hrad, Europes largest ruin
Spissky Hrad, Europes largest ruin, is a must see in Slovakia. 08-07-2006. Everybody stops here to make a picture.
The silhouette of the castle can be seen from afar and it is impressive. It belong among the largest complexes in central Europe. The foundations go back to prehistoric ages it endured up to 1780 when...
Build your own Spisske Podhradie page
Comments