The obscure secrets of the Corvin Castle

Corvin Castle was nominated among the tourist destinations of excellence around the world, according to tripadvisor.com website, which evaluated the reviews submitted by foreigners who visited the monument. Tourists were fascinated by the castle, but most of them do not know its frightful secrets.

The creepy rooms

Despite the fact that it’s been nearly six centuries since it has been set up, Corvin Castle’ building, the monument’ architecture, including its legends, many still remaining unknown to the public, continue to amaze. There are lots of fascinating stories waiting to be revealed, Delia Roman, researcher at the Corvin Castle Museum told Adevarul. Some mysteries are related to the role of Corvin Castle’ bastion of torture, consisting of two rooms filled with the torturing tools with the aid of which prisoners were excruciated to death. ‘Here tourists can find the story of Ana, wife of John Torok, the first owner of the castle after the Corvins. She was accused of adultery and finally beheaded (…)’, said Delia Roman.

The dungeon of the convicts sentenced to death by oblivion

An adjacent room to the bastion of torture, as much spectacular as the previous one, is the former prison of the castle dating back in the 16th-17th centuries. Historians say the prison was designed on several levels. ‘In addition, the prison had a very narrow dark, wet and dismally space, which the French call it oubliette. Here was the place where convicts were left to death,‘ the castle’s researcher explained.

In the eighteenth century, the prison was closed and transformed into smoke house, and many of the cellar’ remains were gradually removed. A heavy wooden door remained, the only door that survived the fire that consumed the city in mid-nineteenth century.

The legend of the castle’s well

As legend has it, there is a deep well in the castle, which was dug by a few prisoners. Iancu of Hunedoara promised those prisoners freedom if they found water. 15 years of digging, they indeed found water but the voivode died. His wife, Elisabeta Szilagyi, chose not to keep the promise her husband made so she denied their freedom and beheaded them instead. The legend says that one of the prisoners wrote: you now have water, but no soul. Also, on another wall,  the names of the three prisoners are written.

For nearly four decades, the fountain has not been cleaned nor investigated.

The Knight’s hall

Here, you can see a small collection of armors and weapons. This huge room was used for trials, interrogations and sentencing the enemies of the royal court. Sometimes, during the questionings, people were tortured here. Also, under the Knight’s Hall, you can see the dungeon where Vlad the Impaler might have been imprisoned. Outside, you can see something called “the bear pit”. They say that inside this cage, two hungry bears were kept for people who were meant “to disappear”.

Read also: http://www.romaniajournal.ro/romanias-hunyad-castle-in-top-ten-must-see-european-castles/