Modrý Kameň

Modrý Kameň (German: Blauenstein; Hungarian: Kékkő) is a town and municipality in the Veľký Krtíš District of the Banská Bystrica Region of southern Slovakia. It is located in the Krupina Plain (Slovak: Krupinská planina) on the Krtíš and Riečka rivers. It is around 5 km from Veľký Krtíš and 50 km from Zvolen and is the smallest town in Slovakia. The name of the town was first mentioned as Keykkw (Hungarian: Kékkő) in 1290. The name of the settlement means "Blue rock". Ruins of the castle Modrý Kameň stand on a rock pinnacle above the town. The castle was built in second half of 13th century by the ancestors of the Balassa noble family. They had to recapture the castle from sons of Casimir of the Hunt-Poznan clan by a siege in 1290. The...