Čachtice


Čachtice is a village in Nové Mesto nad Váhom District in western Slovakia with a population of 4,010.
The village is situated between the Danubian Lowland and the Little Carpathians. It is best known for the ruins of the nearby Čachtice Castle, home of Erzsébet Báthory. The castle stands on a hill featuring rare plants, and the area was declared a national nature reserve for this reason.
WWW cachtice.sk

History

Prehistoric settlements from the Neolithic, Chalcolithic, Bronze Age, Hallstatt period, La Tène period, Roman periods and the early Slavic period have been found here.
The first written reference to the village dates from 1263. Čachtice has received the status of a town in 1392, but it was later degraded back to a village. In 1847 the parsonage was the meeting place of the first Slovak national and cultural society Tatrín, at which the definitive decision to use the central Slovak dialects as the basis for the new standard of the codified Slovak language was adopted. Before the establishment of independent Czechoslovakia in 1918, Čachtice was part of Nyitra County within the Kingdom of Hungary. From 1939 to 1945, it was part of the Slovak Republic.

Population

It has a population of  people.

Castle

The castle was built in the 13th century in order to protect a trade route to Moravia. The most famous owner was the Countess Erzsébet Báthory, who was imprisoned in her own castle and died there in 1614. The castle was abandoned in 1708 and now lies in ruins. Recently, the castle has undergone minor reconstructions.

Genealogical resources

The records for genealogical research are available at the state archive "Statny Archiv in Bratislava, Slovakia"

Monuments

Transport

  • Railway - the village lies on a branchline connecting it with Myjava, Trenčín and Vrbovce approximately 12 times daily.

Notable people

  • Erzsébet Báthory Hungarian countess famous for her notorious cruelty
  • Rudolf Strechaj communist politician
  • Jozef Balala teacher and mathematician