Though the original foundations of the castle date back to 1249, what you see when you look up from the town is an 18th-century baroque palace, girdled by 15th-century walls and bastions. Reach it either from Kossuth tér via Batthyány Kázmér utca, or up Váralja utca from the bus station on Szent István tér.
The entrance is at the red-brick barbican, topped with loopholes and a circular lookout. It leads to the Castle Museum (Vármúzeum) in the south wing. To the right as you enter the main door is an unusual exhibit devoted to the manufacture and changing styles of gloves, fans and umbrellas since the Middle Ages. The exhibit’s emphasis is very much on the Hamerli and Hunor factories at Pécs, which produced some of Europe’s finest kid gloves in the 19th century. The woman’s mourning outfit from the 1870s, complete with black feather fan, is stylishly sombre. The cellar contains Gothic and Renaissance stone fragments from the castle. Most of the 1st floor is given over to the history of the castle; don’t miss the wonderful Sigismund Hall (Zsigmond terem), with its Renaissance fireplace and enclosed balcony with star vaulting and fresco fragments. There’s a gallery of modern art on the 2nd floor.
To the right of the museum entrance, two doors lead to the dark and spooky cells – a real dungeon if ever there was one. The walls here are several metres thick, and up to five grilles on the window slits discouraged would-be escapees. Woodcuts on the walls of the upper dungeon explain how the various torture devices on display were used – there’s a great emphasis on impaling – but even scarier is the bold Russian graffiti dating back to the 1970s, when all was right with the Soviet world. After this the Gothic Chapel of St John of Capistrano (Kapisztrán Szent János kápolna) is a vision of heaven itself, with its brilliant arched windows behind the altar, web vaulting on the ceiling and 15th-century frescoed niches.
On the northern side of the courtyard is a hunting exhibit featuring lots of heads and antlers on walls. Stairs lead to the castle terrace, with fine views of the Villány Hills and the towers to the north and east. Also be sure to check out the small statue of Dorottya Kanizsai that stands on the moat; she was the heroic noblewoman who presided over the burial of the dead at the battle at Mohács.
