The castle is renovated and is in very good condition. The castle was opened to the public in 1997. In the castle is located a branch of the Slovak National Museum. There are still expositions of historical furniture and period living nobility, historical weapons. The castle gallery and underground cellars are also open to the public.It is worth noting the sophisticated sala terrena / room on the ground floor of the palace open to the garden / from 1656 by master Tencall with various figures filled with figural scenes of apotheoses and mythological scenes. Also a wide range of chandeliers, mirrors, precious art-historical objects, furniture and a picture gallery are examples of historical living accessories.As for the exterior, the castle is a massive two-storey building with four corner round bastions connected by a defensive wall. In the basement there are castle cellars with a sophisticated ventilation system. The castle buildings are centered around a large courtyard, the center of attention being a stone fountain with a sculpture of a prancing deer - a symbol of the Palffy family. The unequal tall buildings with bastions are the result of adjustments to the entrance areas, residential palaces and economic parts, which they gradually moved to the area of the bailey.

According to some historians, the castle was built by the Spaniard Tibor Nagy from the Kartalov family before the invasion of the Tatars. The first written mention, however, is from 1271, when the Czech King Otakar II. occupied this castle. The Red Stone was a royal castle and many owners changed in its possession. In 1296, the peasant Martin Devecseri sold half of the fortress together with the surrounding estates to Matúš Čák. After his death, in 1321, the troops of King Charles Robert occupied the castle. In the years 1348 - 1350, King Louis the Great led the war with Queen John I and conquered Naples. However, as the plague broke out, he was forced to retreat, retaining only the Principality of Salerno. The king then donated the castle in 1352 to a knight of German origin Wolfurt, who helped him during this Naples War. In the following century, the owners of the castle changed frequently. These included e.g. Ákos - Mikčov's son, Queen Elizabeth, Count Prokop. In 1390, King Sigismund seized the castle, but soon after, the castle was given a deposit to Baron Ulrich von Wolfurt, Eglof's son. In 1438, after Ulrich's death, the castle fell back into royal hands. However, Albrecht of Habsburg soon dedicated the castle to Lőrincz Hédervárim. From 1414 the castle belonged to the most powerful count of St. Jura and Pezinka (genus Bazini and Szentgyörgyi). The castle belonged to them until 1522, when their families disappeared. King Louis II after their death he donated the castle to his bride Maria Habsburg together with the adjoining villages. However, the following year the ruler handed over the castle to the Thurz family. Brothers Alexej and Ján Thurzo were Spiš magnates who already belonged to the richest nobility in the 15th century. The Fugger family received the castle from them in 1535 and later inherited it.

During the time of the Fuggers, the castle was significantly rebuilt from the ground up. Anton Fugger initiated an extensive reconstruction into a fortress with massive basement storage spaces. It was to be a transhipment point for goods on a trade route to Western Europe. However, the castle never served as a warehouse. Despite thoughtful plans, the construction of the fortress took 20 years and the administrative-residential southwest wing was not completed until 1556. The smooth continuation of the construction of the fortress was hindered by the mass of a medieval castle, which was gradually liquidated during the construction of the fortress. During the years of construction, the castle also served as a temporary seat of the manor administration and also provided accommodation for craftsmen working on the construction of a new fortress. Part of the older building material was used in the new construction. The last buildings of the medieval castle were not demolished until 1555. The construction was completed in 1556. At that time, the Červený kameň castle basically acquired the form it has today. An unexpected historical turning point was the withdrawal of the Fuggers from the Thurzov-Fugger Mediation Company in 1546, at a time when the Červený Kameň fortress had not yet been completed. A great change was brought about by the sudden death of Anton Fugger in 1560. In 1581, the Fuggers succeeded in acquiring the advantageous merchant Mikuláš Pálffy, the Baron of Erdöd, who bought part of the property from Marek Fugger. Meanwhile, in 1583, the Fuggers definitively left Slovakia.

The new owner of the castle thus became Mikuláš Pálffy in 1583, who married Mária Magdaléna Fuggerová and thus acquired the castle. Until the purchase of the Červený Kamen estate, Mikuláš Pálffy did not have the representative seat that the then nobility built in the countryside at the end of the 16th and the beginning of the 17th century. Therefore, he began to rebuild the inhospitable, little-adapted fortification. The aim of the extensive reconstruction was to transform this fortress architecture into a comfortable representative Renaissance castle. Pálffy died here in April 1600 and his vast estate was inherited by his sons. In 1605, however, the troops of Štefan Bocskaya and in 1619 the troops of Gabriel Bethlen attacked and occupied the castle. In July 1683, after the conquest of Bratislava Castle and the occupation of the whole of Bratislava, the Kuruk troops, led by Imrich Thököly, also reached the Red Stone and occupied it. Since the Pálffy family was loyal to the Habsburgs, the Red Stone Fortress was not affected by the order to demolish the castles issued by Emperor Leopold in 1701. During the Rákóczi uprising, in 1703, the Kuruk rebels wanted to get the castle into their own hands. In 1705, Červený Kameň Castle was severely damaged. The great-grandson of Nicholas IV began the repair and further reconstruction of the castle. Rudolf Pálffy. He first repaired the damaged parts of the castle, especially the mantle masonry and cannon bastions, which at that time still served their purpose. In August 1705, the imperial troops defeated Rákóczi's Kuruk rebels. The rebels tried to attack the castle again in a few months, but suffered another defeat. In 1710 a fire broke out, during which the roof part of the castle completely burned down. After the end of the war, the castle became habitable again. After the first renovations in 1758, a fire broke out again in the northwest wing above the entrance gate of the castle, which destroyed the living quarters and the clock tower. During the restoration of the fire-destroyed part of the castle, they continued with the addition of another floor above the south-eastern wing. Although it was no longer the Pálffy headquarters, they continued to keep the buildings in good condition. The Pálffy family transformed the austere fortress into a Renaissance-Baroque mansion with beautiful interior decoration. After 1850, the roof of the castle was restored. The rooms and large halls remained empty. The castle has maintained a similar condition to this day. The Pálffy family lived here until 1945. In 1970, the castle was declared a national cultural monument. In 1992, the first exhibition from the collections of the Red Stone Museum was opened. In 1993 the southwest wing of the castle was opened and in 1997 the southeast wing.

The legend of the castle

An interesting legend has been preserved about the construction of the Červený Kameň castle. Twelve sages were advised where to build it. Eleven designed the Kukla hill, which is located opposite the castle today. Only one - the youngest suggested the current place, because according to him, ghosts and ghosts meet on the hill Kukla and they will certainly not like the construction activity in their nest. However, the majority opted for Kukla. And so the workers built a large part of the foundations and walls on the first day. But strange things happened at night. The good fairies lifted the castle and carried it to the neighboring hill. How big was the surprise of the workers when they found nothing in the original place the next day. So the council of elders met again and agreed with its youngest member and left the castle in a new place. So he could exhibit undisturbed in his beautiful form.

Opening hours and admission

https://www.hradcervenykamen.sk/?page=opening

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C4%8Cerven%C3%BD_Kame%C5%88_Castle

https://www.hrady-zamky.sk/cerveny-kamen/