Spiš Castle is huge, and from a distance it looks like a long white crown laid on top of a hill. It stands above the small town of Spišské Podhradie in eastern Slovakia, on a travertine outcrop about two hundred metres above the plain, and it is one of the largest castle complexes in Central Europe, with the ruined walls and towers covering some four hectares. It was first recorded in the early thirteenth century, was rebuilt and extended by Hungarian kings and noble families such as the Zápolya and the Thurzo, and fell into ruin after a fire in 1780. UNESCO lists the castle together with the nearby church, town and village of Žehra.
The setting makes it. The hill rises out of the Hornád valley, with the High Tatras in the north and the Slovak Paradise to the south, and the castle appears from many miles away as you cross the plain. Inside, rooms, chapels and a Romanesque palace have been consolidated, and from the top of the tower you can look across a landscape of fields, red roofs and church spires. The film Dragonheart used the castle as a backdrop in the 1990s, and the ruins have a cinematic air.
Close to the castle, Spišská Kapitula is a small walled ecclesiastical town with a Romanesque-Gothic cathedral, St Martin's, and a street of canons' houses that has hardly changed in centuries. A short ride away, Levoča preserves a ring of medieval walls and a church of St Jacob that holds the tallest Gothic wooden altar in the world, carved by Master Paul in the early sixteenth century, standing about eighteen metres high.
The roads of the Spiš region are pleasant: gentle hills, farmland and views of the Tatras, with moderate traffic and good surfaces. Villages are tidy, with painted houses and village churches with onion domes. Spišské Podhradie has fuel, cafés and guesthouses, and Levoča and Poprad are close for anything more. Weather can change rapidly at this altitude, with cool nights even in summer and snow from November.
Take a warm layer for the castle's windy ramparts, and allow at least two hours inside the walls.