Slovakia: Castle Tour: July 16: Smotice and Katerinka

This is the entry to the castle in Smotice. It's a rebuilt castle from the 12th Century that was originally created to help protect the lower Carpathian mountains. Now it is an Academy of Science.

The impressive and original tower.

Continuing the Gio with cannons series.

The interior of the castle. It is currently a school and only open to visitors in July and August.

The blue salon.

Eamon made it up all those stairs himself!

Just the right size.

Views from the tower.

The view from the surrounding park.

The countryside on the way to the next ruin, the Katerina Monestery.

A very pretty fence on the way to the ruin.

Here is the tower of the Katerinka Monestery ruin. This ruin is actually being renovated and escavated by a man that seeks out student volunteers to come help. It's a sought after program that students apply to and stay in 2 week shifts. There is no running water and no electricity. They are renovating by hand, just as the original builders would have done. 

Here is one of the students explaining the history to Gio and I. They were all very enthusiatic and excited about telling us the history. We were pretty lucky to come across this as it's not in any of our tour books. We just saw a sign that showed a castle ruin and we followed the road. We couldn't read any of the "no cars" signs and just kept going until we ran into the student encampment. They made an exception for us to park there since the kids were sleeping and so little. It was very generous of them to invite us in to explore.

This was originally a Gothic chapel built in the 12th century, later turned into a Franciscan Monestery. The monks were kicked out in the 1700s by the monarchy of the time. Our guide wasn't quite sure why. Or, he just didn't know how to say it in English.

They're currently working on building a staircase inside the tower.

This is the monestery part.

Here is a rendering of what it looked like before it became delapidated. 

The view from the student encampment.

The encampment. There were quite a few students and they were all so cheerful and excited. 

Gio enjoying the view.

The pretty road going in to the ruin.