Rakoczi Castle - castle - Sarospatak

The Rakoczi castle built in the centre of Sarospatak is the oldest monument in the town with the richest historical assets. This castle is one of the most valuable fortified castles in Hungary.
Patak was a royal possession from the 11th century on. Between 1534 and 1541 Peter Perenyi erected a large five-floored tower as residential quarters at the south-east corner of the walls. Hungarian master builders completed the castle complex in a late Renaissance style, to the plans of Allessandro Vedani, the Italian architect. The fragments of Romanesque and Gothic carvings are what remains of the Dominican monastery and the castle. The Perenyi wing on the north was built between 1540 and 1567. In 1616 its proprietor, Zsuzsanna Lorantffy wed the later Prince of Transylvania, Gyorgy Rakoczi I. In this way Patak became the centre of the Rakoczi possessions. From 1640 the castle's defences were strengthened and the Lorantffy wing added, then the logia and the platform for cannon. From 1676 the castle was held by Ferenc Rakoczi, its defences were ordered torn down by the Emperor in 1702. It was restored in the Baroque style by the Trautson princes (1711 - 1776) and in the Romantic (from 1807) by the Bretzenheim princes, while preserving its Renaissance elements. From 1875 it was owned by the princes Windischgratz and from 1945 by the Hungarian state. Since 1950 the Rakoczi Museum of the Hungarian National Museum has held the Rakoczi inheritance.