Serednie Castle, or the Templar Castle in Transcarpathia
The Templar Castle in Transcarpathia - Serednie Castle, or rather its ruins, in the village of Serednie, which lies not far from Uzhhorod.
The might and wealth of the ancient monastic order aroused admiration even in European monarchs. The treasury of the knights who had donned the cassock grew relentlessly after the First Crusade. Yet it was not gold, but another treasure of the foothill deposits - salt - that brought the Templars respect and untold profit. So precious a commodity for medieval Europe needed protection. The generous Carpathian land ceaselessly attracted conquerors, and its trade routes - thieves and bandits.
The uniqueness of Serednie Castle
A dozen defensive castles rose in stone along the «salt road», but only Serednie Castle or the Templar castle preserved the Romanesque austerity of its architecture.
Unlike its cliff-top brethren, the Templar castle settled in the centre of the valley. The «middle» of the lowland terrain, which is not so easy to find in the mountains, gave its name to the present-day village. Beneath it rests a Neolithic heritage - primitive man once chose this advantageous spot for a settlement. And the surrounding area is laced with a tracery of underground passages. The work of Turkish captives of the mid-16th century - the wine cellars - still serve local production and tourism to this day.
These dungeons within the volcanic rock offer a walk of as much as 4 km of passages. Their legendary neighbours, which connect the castle with Uzhhorod and Mukachevo, lead off into the depths of the centuries. For more than 40 km of secret passages, guarding the order’s treasures, remain hidden from the modern seeker.
But on our excursion «The Castles of Transcarpathia» it holds a special advantage over the 21st-century traveller - free access to the stronghold.
Once it was surrounded by a water-filled moat, a wooden palisade and four watchtowers. The central element of the complex - the donjon tower, built without a single entrance on the lower tier. Walls more than two and a half metres thick (you could easily wall a car up in them!) rose to the height of a modern five-storey building. Inside, three tiers of the tower were supported by wooden beams, and the stairs to the entrance on the second floor were burned at the first threat of invasion. Loophole windows allowed all-round fire, while the well, now filled in, allowed a long siege to be withstood.
The monks of the order did not leave their monastic cells; the customs castle took on guards only for a time. The blind lower tier with white-stone steps leading up served them as an arsenal for weapons, a food store and, when necessary, was used as a prison.
Modern-day Templars claim that somewhere in there the treasures that were saved in the Transcarpathian donjon from French persecution must have remained. But today the wind looks for them in vain among the picturesque ruins.
The beginning of the majestic castle’s decline
At the start of the 14th century the Order of the Temple was excommunicated from the Church and went underground. The struggle for Serednie Castle touched not only monarchs, but also other orders. The castle, covered with a pattern of polished stone and reinforced at the corners with white-stone slabs, still seemed appealing for medieval living. It was owned by the Antonians and the monks of the Order of St Paul, and then - by the Hungarian nobility.
The era of Habsburg rule brought a fashion for lavish palaces, beside which the impregnable fortress lost its relevance. What the conquerors could not overcome, the mountain wind and sun turned into ruins. But the lonely, beheaded donjon keeps faith with its knightly duty. It continues to guard the trade road, on which the shadows of medieval salt miners are still visible to its loophole eyes.
The excursion around the castles of Transcarpathia invites you to visit Serednie Castle first. And, having felt the romance of its stone heart, to set off to the other fortresses of this mountain land. Whose guardians’ fate was spared indifference and neglect. And within whose mighty walls the memories of a bright and valiant past are still alive.
We also invite you to explore the schedule of our regular excursions across Transcarpathia, which will offer much more that is interesting and thrilling!
