The Bloody Countess

In 1602, the castle became the property of František Nádasdy, husband of the bloody countess Alžběta, or Ersebeth, Nádasdy-Báthory. The story says that one day a maid combing her hair accidentally pulled out a few strands. Enraged, the countess struck her so hard that she bled. A few drops fell on the countess’s face, and when she wiped them away she thought the skin there looked fresher. This supposedly inspired her to bathe regularly in girls’ blood. Thus, according to the account, began the notorious blood baths at Čachtice Castle, claiming more than 600 girls from Čachtice and the surrounding area. Under widespread pressure, Palatine Juraj Thurzo decided in 1610 to investigate. The countess and her assistants were tried at Bytča Castle. On 7 January 1611 sentence was pronounced: the countess was imprisoned for life at Čachtice Castle, where she died in 1614; her assistants Helena Jó and Dorota Szentes were tortured and their bodies thrown into the fire. Her chief accomplice Ján Ficko Ujváry was beheaded, and his body was also burned. The Slovak writer Jožo Nižnanský fictionalised and popularised her story in his multi-volume novel The Lady of Čachtice.