Beckov Castle 

Beckov Castle is 16 Kilometers south of Trencin at the place where the river Vah (the longest river of Slovakia) finishes its journey through the Trencin's valley and enters the lowlands of Dunaj. Beckov Castle lies on a steep 30 meters high rock over the village of Beckov. It is one of the oldest castles of former Hungary and Austro-Hungarian Empire.

The first written records of the castle date back to 1208. It was mentioned together with Trencin, Cachtice and Tematin among the castles protecting the western Hungarian borders in the Vsh Valley.

It first belonged to the King who gave it to his magnates for their services during the wars. In 1388 Duke Ctibor and his sons became the owners of the castle. Soon Ctibor started a massive reconstruction of the entire castle. He built the upper castle with a chapel and made such extensive modifications of the object as a whole that he was many times by mistake, being considered for it's founder. Ctibor was also owner of many large estates all the way from Orava to Modra. From these estates he was earning large income that had enabled him to finance the construction of many gothic buildings in the surrounding towns and villages.

From Ctibor family the castle returned again to the hands of Banffy family and they owned the castle until 1646 when it’s male members of the family died out by the sword and the estates passed on to the female descendants and divided between six families.

The upkeep was very expensive, lacking proper maintenance the castle was in rapid decay until 1729 when it burned down and from then on it was deserted.