The original Gothic castle consisted of a prismatic tower and a palace. In the middle of the 16th century the castle was rebuilt into a Renaissance fortress with courtyards, later supplemented with cannon bastions.At present, the exterior masonry of the extensive fortifications, a significant cannon bastion and the masonry of the palace and the central tower have been preserved. A stone Renaissance gate has been preserved in the eastern bastion.

Plavecky castle was probably built as a royal border fortress sometime between the years 1256 - 1273. The circumstances of its origin are in more detail described in a document from 1291 talking about events dating back almost half a century. According to the document , Detrich (Depreht), the son of the Bratislava mayor Kunt, received a desolate and uninhabited area called Kitchen from King Bel IV on which the church of St. Nicholas stood. Detrich was responsible for the settlement of the area and built a castle on it, named after him. Detrich Castle enters history more significantly in 1273 in connection with the battle of Hungarian and Czech troops in the field directly below it. The beginning of the 14th century probably became part of the property domination of Matúš Čák Trenčianský. After his death, the castle belonged to the king and until almost the end of the 14th century it was administered by royal castellans. In 1398 it was acquired by the favorite of King Sigismund of Luxembourg, Duke Stibor of Stiborice.

Until the 16th century, it was owned by counts from Svätý Jur and Pezinok. After the death of the last descendant of the family from Jur and Pezinok, the castle again belonged to the crown, from which it was acquired by Gašpar Serédy. However, he released the castle in a short time to the reserve possession of Krištof Salm, from whom the castle was acquired by the Fugger family. The Fugger family owned it in the period 1553 - 1575. The castle was paid for by Ferdinand I from the advance, who donated it to Melicher Balass for proven services. In the years 1579 - 1582, the printer of the preacher P. Borzemisz was known at the Plavecky Castle. Calendars and religious books with Protestant sermons were printed here. After the extinction of the Balass family, Peter Bakič became the new owner, who allegedly freed Zuzana Forgáchová from Holíč Castle and protected her at the Plavecky Castle. In 1641 the castle was acquired by Pavol Pálffy and the Pálffy family was its owner continuously until the 20th century. In the second half of the 16th century, the castle was rebuilt into a Renaissance fortress with lower courtyards. It was gradually fortified again and maintained during the 17th century, when it was supplemented with new cannon bastions. In 1706, the castle was shelled by the imperial army for three days, which damaged it and captured it from the hands of the Kuruk insurgents. They haven't restored it since. The seat of the manor moved to Malacky in the middle of the 17th century.

Since 2014, the castle has been undergoing conservation and partial restoration.

The rumour says

The castle is the scene of a story, due to which the new Trojan War almost broke out in Hungary. In 1607, Peter Bakič kidnapped František Révay's wife, whom his husband, a drunkard and a cruel, kept under a rubble. Zuzana Forgách then lived at the Plavecky Castle next to her gavalier.

The King and the Pálffys

The king was once a guest of the lord of the Plavecky Castle and they went hunting together. A deer hunted by the king frightened Paul in the woods of a pony pulling a chariot. The truck overturned, Paul rolled over the car and his son sitting next to his father just saved himself. The king felt sorry for the king and entrusted him to the care of the childless master of the Plavecky Castle. He adopted it and donated the castle estate on his deathbed to an already grown-up and current young man, the founder of the Pálffy family (in Hungarian Pál fia = Paul's son).

The ruins are freely accessible

https://www.hrady-zamky.sk/plavecky-hrad/