Places to visit

Castle of St. Žofia (Sophia)

The Castle of St. Žofia used to be a very important building, however, little of it has been preserved to this day.

It is situated in the centre of the town, at “Nábrežie M. R. Štefánika”, right by the main road and near the confluence of the rivers Váh and Revúca.

At present, the remaining part of the castle is owned by a private company, and the rest of the premises on which the castle used to stand were, until recently, part of a business chain.

The castle was built at the end of the 14th century and it was one of the earliest castles in Slovakia. In the past, it used to accommodate some very important guests, such as King Sigismund, Polish king Kazimír, Gabriel Bethlen and more. For a long period of time, it was the seat of Likava nobility, later on, there was a prison, a court, barracks, a military school, a tax authority and a forest-sector governance office. In 1906, for instance, Andrej Hlinka and Vavro Šrobár had their trial here. From 1918, it was used for accommodation of workers. After 1968, the premises were used by the soviet army. At the end of the 20 the century, the castle was already in desolate condition. In 2002, three quarters of the castle were demolished, only a small part remained, and a department store was built there.