The castle stands on a cliff 696 feet (212 m) high at the confluence of the Danube and Morava rivers, on the Slovak-Austrian border. It guarded a trade route on the Danube and a branch of the Amber Road. The site was settled in the Neolithic Age and fortified in the Bronze and Iron Ages, and archaeologists found a 1st-century AD Roman tower.
Around 850 to 870 a pre-Romanesque church was built here. A stone castle to protect the western frontier of the Hungarian Kingdom was documented in 1271. A palace was added in the 15th century while fortifications were reinforced against the Ottomans, and the castle was never taken. The last fortifications date to the 17th century.
Retreating Napoleonic forces blew it up in 1809. The Pálffy family sold the ruins to the state in 1932, and restoration has continued since World War II. The article names no builders and gives no dimensions.
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