Louis I of Hungary ordered the castle as a hunting residence. The text gives the Gothic build as 1360 to 1382, while the infobox says the 1370s. It replaced Pustý hrad, a 12th-century castle on a steep cliff, abandoned because access was difficult. The style is Gothic, inspired by 14th-century Italian castles. The article names no architect, materials or dimensions. Louis's daughter Mary and Sigismund were engaged there in 1382 and married in 1385.
Around 1500 four round bastions and a gate were added, and Italian masons carried out a Renaissance reconstruction in 1548, with an extra floor and corner oriel towers. An artillery bastion followed around 1590. The chapel was rebuilt in Baroque style in 1784, and the castle was reconstructed again in the 1960s.
It houses a regional branch of the Slovak National Gallery and is a National culture monument.
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