High in the Strážov Mountains, Uhrovec Castle comes back to life after years of abandonment. The renovation of what is considered one of Slovakia’s best-preserved castles sets new standards for restoring monuments in the region.

The most recent milestone in the ambitious project of restoring the castle, raised around 1214 and destroyed by fire in 1848, is the revamp of the three-story operation building, located in the fortress’s lower courtyard. Built during the late Renaissance, this multifunctional space will serve as an exhibition gallery, with a common room and accommodadtion facilities for visitors as well as volunteers and experts involved in further refurbishment of the complex.

The intervention has been carried out with profound respect for the history of the place. After painstaking studies to identify the building’s original elements, interdisciplinary teams from Slovak Technical University’s Faculty of Architecture and Design and the Institute of History and Theory of Architecture and Restoration of Monuments – with architects Martin Varga, Martin Kvitkovský, and Pavol Pauliny, restoration experts, and art historians – brought back to light a number of construction details that were believed lost.

Traditional materials and artisanal techniques were used, including manually trimmed timber beams, bearing walls duly rebricked, and a roof made of wooden pieces inspired by the original imprints of the northern gable end. Among the resotred building’s most striking features are the windows of hand-cast glass , a tile stove reconstructed with original shards, and the use of lime plaster to respect the historical aesthetic of the premises.