Last summer I met Oleksandr Dzembas, an archaeologist and leader of the movement to clear the Nevytske Castle of what seemed age- old six feet weeds and shrubs, scaring away seven-feet long hissing Carpathian grass snakes. Heavily damaged by time, the citadel is near Nevytske, a village 12 kilometers north of Uzhhorod, on the left bank of the river Uzh, atop a volcanic elevation 260 meters above sea level.
The castle dates from the twelfth century. Dzembas believes it was built owing to the Hungarian kings’ active pro-Russ’ stand and because passes and roads across the Carpathian Mountains, leading north and east of Halych and Kyiv, played an increasingly important role. At the time the castle was a small earthwork structure fortified by ramparts and moats.
In March 1241, the Mongols burst into Hungary through the Veretsky Pass and ruined the fortress. In the second half of the 13th century it was restored and in 1279 Hungarian King Laszlo IV (1274-90) handed all possessions over to the comitat [county] of Ung and under Governor Finti of the Obo family. After his death his brother Amadeus took over the Uzh province and Nevytske Castle and held them until 1311. Hungary had entered an epoch of internal strife, with magnates fighting for the throne. Amadeus and his sons took an active part in it and the castle, now accommodating the zupan [hist., clan leader] and his assistants, was further reinforced. It was at the turn of the fourteenth century that a new rectangular dungeon was erected in place of a round tower and a fifteen feet well dug to collect rainwater.
The territory remained peaceful under aging Amadeus, faithful supporter of Charles Robert of the Angevin dynasty who seized the Hungarian throne (1301-43) after a pitched struggle. After he was killed by rebellious Kosice peasants (Kosice is now in eastern Slovakia), Charles Robert decided to destroy the Obo family’s control of northeast Hungary. The Nevytske Castle, however, remained in Amadeus’s descendants’ hands. In 1317, Laszlo, son of Amadeus, revolted against the crown again but was defeated. The castle was taken by royal troops.
A new epoch in the castle’s history began in 1328 when Charles Robert transferred it to the dukes of Druget, first as temporary and then permanent possession. The gift certificate of 1347 is attested by the new Hungarian king Louis the Great. The Drugets owned the castle from then on, till the citadel perished in the mid-17th century.
Until the mid-fifteenth century, the Nevytske Castle was considered part of the Drugets’ dominion in the Uzh territory only nominally. Here the dukes were content to just keep their castellan. The situation changed in 1440 when a civil war broke out in Hungary and the Drugets came to political prominence once again. Constant clashes and the development of firearms forced the dukes to partially re-equip and considerably reinforce the castle as the only such stronghold in the area.
The renovation was undertaken under conditions of dire need; archaeological excavations reveal huge (up to 25 centimeters in diameter) stone cannonballs dating from the fifteenth century. The spread of firearms made it imperative to reinforce the castle walls, primarily on the eastern side offering the easiest approach, and the construction of an additional line of fortifications. To decrease gunfire vulnerability, the outer stone wall was made lower. Additional obstacles for the enemy were provided by a three-story keep standing out southward and linked to the central courtyard by a 35-meter two-story roofed-in gallery. The loopholes of the south keep and gallery commanded the wood bridge spanning the moat before the second line of defense and leading to another courtyard.
“Archaeological finds are evidence that the castle looked the way it does now sometime at the turn of the sixteenth century,” says Prof. Eduard Balahuri, Doctor of Science in history, leading expert with the Carpathian Studies Institute, Uzhhorod National University. “Our studies also indicate that a third defense line was built on the eastern side. It consisted of ramparts and wood- and-clay structures. The ramparts closed the trapezoidal space with two semicircular bastions. The remains of the ramparts are clearly seen even now. A small (0.7 ha) posad [trading quarter outside city wall or suburb] was located between the first and second defense lines, inhabited by craftsmen (potters, blacksmiths, etc.) catering for the nobility in the castle. When under siege, the populace would hide behind the sturdy castle walls. Simple arithmetic shows that the garrison and the posad residents totaled not more than 500. The place wasn’t an impregnable citadel and often changed hands, especially at the turn of the 16th century when the Drugets were gripped by family strife. It’s an established fact that in the 1580s royal troops forced Gaspar Druget to leave the castle and helped Gyorgy II Druget take possession of it.”
“Gyorgy II Druget died in 1591 and his widow had to struggle for the property against Gaspar and Istvan Druget in court,” writes Oleksandr Dzembas, young historian, and Prof. Balahuri’s student. In 1600, she lived at the Nevytske Castle with her children Maria and Gyorgy. Yet even here she found no peace. Balint Ruget, another relative, appeared at the head of a 3000-strong host and besieged the castle. After a series of pitched battles he seized it. The widow, Sorozinda Dozy, had to flee with her children to Poland. Later, her son Gyorgy III Druget regained the castle, but lost it again in 1619, after the Thirty Years’ War (1618-48). This time the castle was seized by Transylvanian Prince Bethlen Gabor. After his death in 1629 the Drugets regained their property by the river Uzh, the Nevytske Castle included. Yet the castle seemed under a kind of ominous spell and its fate was decided. In 1644, Transylvanian prince Gyorgy I Rakoczi took the field against Austrian Emperor Ferdinand III backed by Janos Druget, then ruler of the Nevytske Castle. Gyorgy I seized and destroyed the fortress. It has since laid in ruins.
Between the world wars, when Zakarpattia was part of Czechoslovakia, a tourist club in Uzhhorod took care of the castle (1923), doing works worth 20,000 kronen. Quite recently, the Transcarpathian center of studying youth tourism, local history, excursions, and sports (director: Volodymyr Chepa) came out with the initiative of tending the unique historical site. A special long-term program was worked out. UNESCO became interested. The program is being implemented by Oleksandr Dzembas. The boundary of the program is studying the site in full depth, restoring and rebuilding it within certain archaeological limits, and setting up a state museum-terrorist complex.
Last season, when it grew warm, something was done in that direction; with active assistance from the Transcarpathian tourist center, local college students, and volunteers from various parts of Ukraine, Hungary, and US, the site was cleared of the underbrush, garbage, and partially explored.
