Pácin is located in Hungary, 92 kilometers east of Miskolc, near the Slovakian border, and the castle of Nagykövesd (Veľký Kamenec) is only 3.7 kilometers away on the Slovakian side. Pácin has perhaps the most beautiful fortified mansion in the Bodrogköz region.
Its surroundings were already inhabited after the Hungarian conquest of the Carpathian Basin. Not far from here, the most important graves of the conquest period were found in Karos. According to the present estimation based on the analysis of the findings from the time of the Hungarian occupation, it can be assumed that the center of power of the Hungarian princes who ruled in the first half of the 10th century was in the Upper Tisza region and that it was, therefore, a subdivision of the center of power that existed near Pácin until the middle of the 10th century.
The first mention of Pácin dates back to 1247, when it was owned by the nobleman Roland of the Bogát-Radvány family. It belonged to the Bogát-Radvány family until 1392, when it was acquired by Debrői István in 1398. Among the landlords of Pácin was the Serbian despot George Brankovic, who received several estates from King Zsigmond. In 1444 Brankovic signed a treaty with the Sultan Murad and his Hungarian lands passed into the hands of János Hunyadi. In 1459 Pácin, together with many other Hunyadi estates in northern Hungary, became the property of the Szapolyai family.
In the late Middle Ages Pácin was a part of Tokaj, Tállya and later Regéc castles. The village of Pácin became the property of Serédy Gáspár in the middle of the 16th century and then of his nephew Alaghy János. After his death, his daughter Judit was married by her guardian Mágócsy Gáspár to his nephew Mágócsy András in 1580. Mágócsy Gáspár, one of the richest landowners of Northern Hungary, built the Renaissance castle for the young couple. The castle was completed in 1581, and according to their correspondence the couple lived in Pácin from 1583.
Here is a story about who was Mágócsy Gáspár, not only a rich landlord but also a brave warrior:
This decent Hungarian warrior was able to trap the most cunning and brave Turkish warrior, Voivode Dsáffer, on April 1st, 1566. Voivode Dsáffer was the most beloved warrior of the Beys and Pashas. He had captured Nádasdy Farkas and Bánya János, and he was the only one who could boast of having fought and survived a duel with Thury György, the champion of 600 duels. This Voivode Dsáffer of Hatvan Castle caused a lot of trouble for the warriors of Eger Castle. Therefore, Mágocsy tried his best to trap him. He succeeded in April 1566.
Mágócsy had sent out 12 good cavalrymen as bait on the day of Easter. Dsáffer, thinking that the lure had only been released from a smaller fortress, rushed out of his castle and followed them. But the 500 hussars of Magócsy from Eger and the 140 Hajdú infantry of Figedy János were hiding in a place where he met them.
A hard and fierce battle developed. Voivode Dsáffer fought heroically but in vain. His unit was wiped out and he was taken to Eger with many wounds. Magócsy reported his capture in Vienna, mentioning that he had treated the Turk well, asking him only a few friendly questions about their plans.
András studied at the University of Wittenberg between 1559 and 1561, together with Szikszai Fabricius Balázs, a prominent representative of the Calvinist Reformation, which spread in Zemplén and the Hegyalja region from the late 1560s. Later, together with his uncle, Károli Gáspár was one of the prominent patrons of the new church, and from 1584 he lived on their estates – the last letter of Mágóchy András was written in his own hand – and probably already at this time he began the preparation of the first printed Hungarian Bible – the Vizsoly Bible.
Magócsy András died in 1586, and his widow became the wife of Rákóczi Zsigmond, so Rákóczi became the lord of the almost 300 thousand-acre Munkács domain and of course the owner of Pácin. The Alaghy family sued for Pácin, and in 1590 Alaghy Judit ceded the fortified manor of Pácin (“domus lapidea seu curia nobilitaris in modum fortalitii”) to her relatives Alaghy Ferenc and Menyhért.
The Renaissance mansion became the residence of Alaghy Ferenc in 1590. It was during his tenure that the first major changes were made to the building: a tower-like structure was added to the southern corners, crowned by a series of dwarf arcades of an unknown shape. Not only the arcades but also the walls were richly decorated with sgraffito and painted decorations. Alaghy Ferenc also surrounded the castle with a wall and a tower together with a defensive corridor, the entrance of which was fortified with a wolf pit and a drawbridge.
However, the wolf’s den in front of the entrance (now excavated) was more for the dignity of the lord of the castle, as it could not provide effective protection. In front of the walls, in the southern part, there was a courtyard. A stone frame with a date and insignia of the former outer gate is a reference to the construction of the castle by Alaghy Ferenc. The frame, dated 159l, is beautifully carved and decorated with a Renaissance cornice with gutto molding and rosette.
The castle was in its heyday at the end of the 16th century. The pink-white walls, the egg-white and graphite-gray sgraffito and the blue-red armoring of the northern corners of the building gave the architecture a painterly effect, also composed in color. Alaghy Menyhért inherited the castle after the death of Alaghy Ferenc in 1612. He died on June 14, 1631 at the age of 44. There were no heirs, so his property, including the castle of Pácin, was returned to the king.
Later, King Ferdinand II donated the Pácin estate and castle to Sennyei Sándor, who owned it until 1945. Although the detailed family history of the new owner is not known, we know that according to the inventory of 1676, the owner’s son Albert did not live there – the description mentioned a double roof and an Italianate floor. Perhaps Sennyei István built the building between 1680 and 1720 to repair the damage caused by the Tokaj Uprising.
Minor repairs are known from 1829, and the reconstruction of the castle in 1856 by Sennyei László returned it to its pre-reconstruction form. In the second half of the 20th century it was used as offices, flats, a school, a kindergarten and since 1987 as a museum.
Source: Várlexikon https://varlexikon.hu/pacin
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Here are more pictures of Pácin:
