The Castle...Or What's Left of It.

Truthfully, as I think I have already mentioned, there’s really not much left of Csjethe. I’m not positive about this, but I think it was actually burned to the ground at some point after Elizabeth’s demise, which would account for the only things remaining being stone-works, but I’ll have to confirm that sometime from other sources. Someone has erected large bracings to hold up what remains of the castle wall at various points (some shown here), but in general, the place looks like it won’t probably make it past another century or so. Still, the pictures that follow give some brief glimpses of what I saw as I explored the ruins.

This is the entryway through the main wall of the castle from the small trail that leads to the castle. It’s fairly narrow, but would easily have accommodated a caleche (a horse-drawn carriage) or horsemen.

This is a “back” view from the inside of the wall and emerging onto the castle grounds, just having passed through the entrance. You can still see the primary ramparts, the castle wall, and Elizabeth’s “death tower” in which she spent her remaining days.

This is some geek who traveled 6,000 miles to hike a 1,000 foot cliff in order to see the remains of a castle that belonged to an auspicious vampire, and who had, at this point, no idea of how to get down or back to his hotel. However, he’s having the time of his life, as you can probably tell from the smile on his face.

This is a view down to the little town of Visnove from the castle wall. It’s a loooong way down. Unless, of course, you can turn yourself into a bat.

This is the “inner archway” that would have been the primary entrance to the castle itself. If you look closely, you can see a young couple who shortly after I reached the castle, came walking up the back road. I waved to them, and I’m sure looked just as much of a freak to them as I felt, and generally tried to leave them alone as we each explored our own routes through the castle. Seeing them, however, desperately made me miss Sami even more, particularly when the young man would hold the young woman closely in the chilled air to keep her warm, or sneak a quick kiss under a weathered walkway.

These last pictures are simply a random assortment of shots from within the castle. Notice, as I mentioned, some of the necessary bracings that have been put up to keep the walls from falling over. The castle is definitely not in any kind of shape to last too much longer.