The castle is in a well-preserved state, it is the seat of the Archaeological Institute of the Slovak Academy of Sciences and the bishop's office is located in its area.At the highest point of the castle there is a one-nave Gothic Upper Church with supporting pillars on the northern side. On the eastern side of the Upper Church, there are remnants of Gothic trusses with a barreled Prussian vault with lunettes behind the altar. The four-winged Baroque palace, originally surrounded by open arcades, joins the church. It is accessible through the Baroque portal from the south side of the courtyard. On the northern side of the palace there is a Gothic window with tracery. Baroque barrel vaults with lunettes and stucco ornaments have been preserved inside the palace.The dominant feature of the castle is a high, originally Renaissance tower with the last Baroque reconstruction. Between the tower and the palace, there is an extension of the staircase. From the east side is attached to the tower two-storey building, on the ground floor is the sacristy, on the floors capitular and bishop's archive.The Lower Church, situated between the Upper Church and the Renaissance Tower, has preserved the oldest architecture of the castle - the Romanesque chapel with a horseshoe shrine and part of the nave. In the Lower Church there are Renaissance tombstones of the Nitra bishops and a number of remarkable altars. The area of the buildings was originally fortified. Only part of the fortification, connected to the Gothic sanctuary, has been preserved. On the southeast corner stood a Gothic Vazul (Vasilova) tower, later rebuilt. The Renaissance-Baroque fortifications are mainly developed on the southern side, from where attacks on the castle may have occurred. In addition to ditches and walls to fortify the castle include large bastions, which are also on the northeast and northwest.

Hradný vrch was probably part of the Nitrava agglomeration - Conservio Bagoariorum et Carantanorum: Nitrawa as early as 830, during the time of Prince Pribin. Even in 828, Bishop Adalram of Salzburg consecrated the church here. After 833, Prince Mojmír got to Nitra and expelled Pribina. In the period of Great Moravia, Prince Svätopluk stayed in Nitra and in the years 880 - 892 there was also a bishop's residence. At the beginning of the 11th century, King Stephen declared his son Imrich his successor, which provoked the disapproval of Vazul, who was considered the legal successor of the throne. However, the monarch locked up the opposing Vazul in the Nitra Castle. However, in 1031, Imrich died during the hunt - it is said that he was assassinated by Vazul's father-in-law Tonuzoba. When the monarch, when he learned that his only son had been murdered, he took immense revenge on Tonuzob - he and his wife buried them alive. Vazula tortured him brutally until he was blind and deaf. It is not known whether Vazul survived this torture, but it is no longer mentioned in history. In 1042 the imperial troops of Henry III. the castle was set on fire. In the years 1064 - 1070, the castle is mentioned in the basilica of St. Emeram, in which the remains of St. Ondrej and Beňadik.

During the Tartar invasion in 1241, the castle bravely resisted and was not damaged until 1271 by a fire during the siege by Přemysl Otakar II. After the fire, they restored not only the church, but probably also the castle fortifications. In 1288, the fortress, surrounded by a Romanesque stone wall, became the property of the Nitra diocese. The Romanesque complex was rebuilt in the years 1333-1355, when they probably built a Gothic church on the site of an older Romanesque building. To the west stood a Gothic palace. The old Romanesque chapel was partially bridged by a Gothic vault. Under King Sigismund, they built a new castle fortification in the first half of the 15th century, but little of it has been preserved, because in 1465 the castle was ravaged again by the army of King Matej Korvín.

Other fortifications on the castle took place in the 16th century, at a time of Turkish danger, when they built a Renaissance castle palace and a new inner castle gate. In the years 1622-1644, the Gothic church was rebuilt and the Romanesque church was expanded. However, Turkish troops again damaged the buildings. After many war conflicts, the castle gradually regained its final form. The bastion fortification, built in 1673-1674, initiated by Bishop Tomáš Pálffy, is significant. However, great construction and restoration activities took place at the castle only after the end of the uprising of František Rákóczi at the beginning of the 18th century, when they rebuilt the so-called upper church and built a new bishop's palace. The constant reconstruction of the castle almost completely erased its original appearance. Only a part of the Romanesque church of St. Emeram from the first half of the 13th century. Part of the wall and a large Gothic (upper) church from the first half of the 14th century remain from the Gothic period. The inner castle gate from the 16th century has been preserved. Only buildings from the end of the 17th and 18th centuries have been preserved in relatively good condition.

The legend of the castle

The tower in the eastern courtyard of the castle is called Vazilova. Although there was a nice view of the abode of the subjects from its windows, the one who was trapped in it could not see the castle. Although the birdsong sang through her windows, the bound man in the tower heard nothing. They blinded him and poured lead into his ears. This is how Vazil, the nephew of King Stephen I of Hungary, who was to succeed the throne, suffered in the 11th century. The monk Fulgentius then uttered a curse: for the two extinct eyes of Prince Vazil, which shone like two suns, there will be darkness in the city for two days. According to old records, the city was indeed flooded with darkness in the form of huge swarms of locusts, which completely destroyed the crop. Who knew what was at the site of the castle well at the time when Vazila was dragged into the tower through the eastern courtyard. The current well carved into a huge rock dates back to the Gothic fortifications. At a depth of 62 meters, which is at the level of the river Nitra, rippled water.

Legend about Svätopluk

In the beautiful hall of the Nitra castle lay the old king Svätopluk on the bed. His eyes went out like the rays of the sun before sunset. Svätopluk felt that his forces were leaving him quickly. He looked at his most faithful court and ordered him to bring his three sons to the bed: Mojmír, Svätopluk and Predslav. - My children, - Svätopluk said in a solemn voice as the sons stood before him proudly as three meals, - the candle of my life is over. I will say goodbye to you soon. I will go before the throne of the Most High to answer from my earthly life. But before I leave you, listen to my father's lesson and plant it in my heart. He got out of bed, took a bundle of rods in his shaking hands, handed them first to Mojmír, then to Svätopluk and Predslav, to break them on their knees. Neither of the sons could break the bundle of rods. The sons looked at their father's actions incomprehensibly, astonished. "Don't be surprised," said his father. He untied the rods and gave each son one of them.

- Break them now - The sons broke the rods without much effort. A triumphant smile flew across his father's face. He shot himself in bed and said:

- Learn from this example, my children. For just as you did not manage to break the rods in a bundle, even when you had strained all your young forces, the enemy will not overwhelm you when you hold together, and as easily as you have broken each stream separately, so will your enemies overwhelm you when you are between quarrel and beat yourself and when you don't fight together. This is what your father is referring to! Be united, love yourself together, and then there will be no power to overcome you. In this way, the king demonstrated to his descendants the need for unity, because only that could guarantee their invincibility and prosperity for the country. After Svätopluk's death in 894, his sons Mojmír, Svätopluk and Predslav divided Great Moravia, despite his father's warning. The war-torn country collapsed in 906.

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