If you visit the Castle and Manor in Liptovský Hrádek, during the tour you will also have the opportunity to look into the underground spaces of the castle cave. This underground space crosses the castle rampart in a length of more than one hundred meters. However, don’t expect trickle-down decorations or vast underground spaces. The cave is just a wider fissure in the rock, through which the passage is a real adrenaline experience. Therefore, it is not possible, and especially safe, to visit its premises.
The castle cave, which leads through the castle rampart, is also presented by an exhibition of speleology, which is located right in the premises of the medieval castle.
The cave was created by the centuries-old activity of the Bela river, which gradually expanded the area in the rock to its present form. When a castle was built on a lonely dolomite cliff in the 14th century, they began to use the cave as a waste pit, where most of the waste from the castle kitchen ended up. We know this thanks to the findings discovered by the members of the Slovak Speleological Society, who have been exploring the cave with the support of Dagmar Machova, the owner of the Castle and Kaštieľ, since 2018. The findings are mostly represented by fragments of clay or glass vessels, metal objects, or bones of domestic and economic animals.
Among the more rare finds that come from the area of the Hrádocka Cave are also the remains of a protozoan, an animal that became extinct in the 17th century. We also include a bone cube that was discovered in one of the caves of the cave. It testifies to the fact that even the lords of the castle played dice games. The most significant find from the castle cave is a Roman coin that dates from the 4th century AD. It probably got into the cave among alluvium during floods from a nearby trade route.
Like every proper castle, the one in Liptovský Hrádek is shrouded in rumors. One of them talks about secret corridors that were supposed to lead from the Castle to several places in Liptov. The entrance to them was supposed to lead through the castle cave.
