The original inner castle was built from bricks, with a regular four-wing floor plan. It was surrounded by a moat, but its appearance is still unknown without in-depth research and is assumed only on the basis of graphic documentation from the 17th century. From the northwest and southwest, the inner castle was fed by the outer castle with peripheral buildings. The tall buildings of the outer (lower) castle formed two wings. The southwestern tract was protected by three massive bastions and another small cylindrical bastion protected the main entrance to the castle from the southeast side. The second less important gate to the fort was located on the north side. The northwestern tract was protected by the river Váh. The castle was practically surrounded on all sides by water and therefore it is also mentioned as the Ilava water castle.In the 17th century, the upper castle was modified when a baroque church was built there and a large complex of a two-storey monastery and hospital was added on the north-eastern side of the church. In a four-winged monastic building with a rectangular floor plan, they created two enclosed paradise courtyards. Since 1855 the building is serving as a prison.

Exact information about the origin of the original castle is not known. It was probably built to protect the roads of an important ford through Váh and the town of Ilava itself. There are many speculations about the origin of the castle, but they are not substantiated. E.g. Matej Bel believed that Ilava stood as one of the border castles already in the time of the Árpád family. Damiani Fuxhoffer, in turn, attributed the status of Ilava Castle to the Knights Templar. However, according to the Hungarian historian Gabriel Kolinovič, the Templars could have at most some property in Hungary, but not castles. Other unconfirmed information says that the Ilava Castle was built in the years 1443-1453 by the Jiskrovci.

However, there is a certain mention of the castle from 1446, where its captain Mikuláš of Klobušíc is mentioned - a servant of Pongrác of Saint Nicholas, the then owner of Ilava. However, the castle is already mentioned - not its construction, so we can definitely move its creation earlier. The most probable version is that the castle was built by King Sigismund, after the battle of Ilava in 1431. For strategic reasons, Sigismund had the old town of Ilava collapsed in 1432 and transferred it to today's Váh terrace and ordered the Ilavans to build a town here and at the same time built Ilava Castle. The brick castle on the southwest slope was built relatively quickly, because at the beginning of 1439 it was donated by Sigismund's son-in-law King Albrecht to his wife, Queen Elizabeth. Later, according to a deed of donation, which was not preserved, he gave the royal property in advance to Ulrich Celjský, a relative of Queen Barbara. In 1454, during the reign of King Ladislav V of Hungary, the castle was acquired from Ulrich by Ján Hunyadi.

After the death of Ladislav V. in 1457, Matej Korvín was elected King of Hungary, and Ilava Castle passed into his ownership as a royal castle. Juraj of Hatný was appointed captain of the castle. In 1472, Matej Korvín donated the castle to his favorite duke Blažej Magyar, who had a Gothic parish church with a bell tower built in Ilava. After Blažej, Ilava was acquired by his son-in-law and heir Pavol Kinizsi, who died in 1494 in the battle of Belgrade. Ilava was acquired by Štefan Zápoľský and after the battle of Mohács in 1526 by his son Ján Zápoľský. However, after being elected king, Ferdinand I expropriated John for treason and confiscated all his property. In 1527, he donated the castle to the five-school postman Ladislav Macedónský and his two brothers. In 1531, Ilava Zápoľský was occupied by a supporter Ján Kostka from Sedlec, captain of the upper part of Hungary. However, in 1533 Ladislav Macedónsky sold the castle and manor to Mikuláš Ostrožič (Ostrosith). In 1573, Mikuláš and Ondrej shared the property of their father Ján Ostrožič and inhabited the castle together. They made it a luxurious aristocratic residence. Mikuláš Ostrožič died in 1598 and left the castle to his sons Matej and Štefan. Matej fell in 1601 in the fight against the Turks. Štefan's sons also worked at the castle. The Ostrožič family rebuilt and enlarged the castle, not only the upper castle, but also the so-called the lower castle (originally probably the defensive line of the Ilava castle), which gradually changed its character - it served as a manor house - the seat of the manor. On the wall in the courtyard of the castle are the coats of arms of the Ostrožičov family from 1652, when a large renaissance reconstruction of the castle was probably completed. They paid considerable attention mainly to the fortifications against the Turks.

In 1670, Matej was accused of Wesselényi's conspiracy and Ilava was occupied by the imperial army. They destroyed the base of the fortifications and buried the castle moats. Matej remained in the castle even after its devastation. In 1681 he fell under the suspicion that he was on Thököly's side and all his property was confiscated. At that time he openly joined Thököly and in 1683 he left Ilava. The Ilava estate was administered by the chamber for some time. In 1693, Leopold I sold it to Ilava Siegfried Krištof Breuner of Stubingen. He rebuilt the lower part of the castle into a manor house. He made the upper part of the castle available to the Archbishop of Esztergom, Juraj Széchényi, from whom he borrowed money to buy the Ilava estate. Széchényi decided to establish the first Trinitarian monastery in Hungary. The Trinitarians came to Ilava from Vienna. Initially, they lived in the northwestern tract of the outer castle. After concluding a contract with Siegfried Breuner (1697), they moved to the upper castle. On July 23, 1701, the Ilava Trinitarians laid the foundation stone of a two-tower single-nave Baroque church.

At the beginning of 1784, the Trinitarians left Ilava, shortly after Joseph II. abolished the monastery. After their departure, the monastery church began to serve as a parish church, because the old Gothic church was in poor condition. The lower - outer castle housed the Konigsegg family, heirs to the late Siegfried Breuner. As owners of a large area between Ilava and the White Carpathians, they mostly lived in their manor house in Prussia, so in 1855 they sold the entire complex of buildings of the former Ilava castle to the Hungarian state. The state established a provincial penitentiary in Ilava in 1856 and still serves as a prison.

There are no myths available.

There is a prison in the castle. Entry is of course not possible.

https://www.hrady-zamky.sk/ilava/