Csillagvar, ground fortress Small castle

Welcome to the Janiks. You stand before a place that carries a quiet but very strong trail of ancient history. In front of your eyes, Csillagvár, also known as Hrádok, lies in our contexts. Although at first glance it may seem to be just an unusual shape of this hill, it is, in fact, a monumental witness's day when the fates of entire countries were decided on the border between stability and uncertainty. Feel the atmosphere - this hill is not just a natural part of the country, it is an artificial, strategic point that was designed with a clear and uncompromising aim: to defend.

Let us first understand why this place was created. We must go back deep into the seventh century, namely the seventh century. At that time, the situation in our lands was extremely tense. The threat from the east, the ever approaching Turkish army, was a reality that affected everyone's lives in the region. The castle was not created as a royal palace for fairy tales, but as a functional, military tool of survival. It was part of a wider defense system to protect our territory from the enemy's idea. After 1663 its character has improved further and undergone an important transformation. At that time, what you see today was created - a sophisticated bastion fortification supplemented by a system of ditches. It was not just about the women, but about the precise engineering that was supposed to discourage the enemy before he could penetrate deeper into the country.

Now please pay attention to what you see around you. Look at the overall shape of this place. If you looked at it from a height, you would see something that fascinates every observer - an irregular hexagonal star ground plan. This architecture is not for decoration or for aesthetic beauty, it is a number of mathematics in defense service. Every angle, every arm of this star has been designed to eliminate dead angles where the enemy could hide. Feel the earth rollers that make up here. These are not just heaps of earth, but precisely shaped barriers that make up this unique fort. Note how the terrain adapted to the needs of military engineering. These ramparts, sometimes called the Turkish Wall, constitute an insurmountable obstacle. The fortues that once surrounded them today form part of this unique landscape architecture and define its unusual, stellar profile.

Perhaps at this moment you might like to know the names of the people who built this place, or of the kings and generals who stopped here at the time of the fighting. Here, however, we come across one of the most interesting and mysterious aspects of this place. The architects of this fortu have remained unknown in history. The unknown names of engineers who drew these geometric lines in the seventeenth century do not even know the specific personalities that lived here at times of tension. But it is this anonymity that gives the place a special touch. These are not the names from the textbooks you need to remember, but the voices of anonymous soldiers, engineers and residents who have quietly fulfilled their duties here. See their presence in every inch of this earth, at every angle of this wall.

We also have something for you that may upset your idea of this place. This place has more than one name, which reflects its different faces. Some call it the Castle, others know it as the Star's Castle. The very word, star, is the key to understanding his soul. This star is not just a symbol, it is a physical shape that stands here and defines the entire location. It's a connection between the celestial body and Earth's defense. When you look at this hill, you see not only soil, you see a strategic game in which thousands of people have been betting for lives in the seventeenth century.

Today Csillagvár is no longer a battlefield but a valuable cultural treasure. In 1966 this unique object was officially entered in the register of national cultural monuments of the Slovak Republic. This tells us that what is standing before you is not just a pile of land, but an important heritage that we have a duty to protect for future generations.

Now we invite you to continue this journey. Go through this hill, see its shapes, watch how the earth's ramparts wave in the country and try to imagine what those times looked like when this fort was in full operation and when each of its angles was ready for defense. Let yourself be absorbed in the atmosphere of this historic place and discover its secrets with your own eyes. Thank you for being here with us and for choosing to explore history with us.