Konyha (Slovak: Kuchyňa, German: Kuchel) is a municipality in Slovakia, located in the Pozsony (Bratislava) Region, within the Malacka (Malacky) District. Its castle was built in the Kingdom of Hungary in the 13th century; its slight remains can be found 3.5 km north-northwest of the village.
Location on my Google Map: https://tinyurl.com/pehynffm
The ruins of Konyha Castle (if it was even called that) are located in the western part of the Little Carpathians, on a small 425-meter-high spur beside Bučková Hill. The ruins were discovered relatively late, only in the 1980s. Charters do not mention the castle; only the owners of the territory are known.
The settlement of Konyha first appears under the name Cuhnamezei (“Peruenit usque locum nomine cuhnamezei”) in a charter of King András II. On October 28, 1291, King András III granted to Depreht [Detre], son of Kunch, the castellan of Pozsony, the uninhabited land of the Pozsony castle called Kuhna [Konyha] (“…quandam terram Castri nostri Posoniensis Kuhna vocatam, …”) in reward for his services upon the king’s accession to the throne. On this land stood a church dedicated to Saint Miklós (Nicholas), which had been held undisturbed since its donation by King Béla IV.
The castle was likely built by the Szentgyörgyi-Bazini family after the settlement of Konyha and its surrounding area came into their possession at the end of the 13th or beginning of the 14th century. Some of the artifacts discovered at the castle site date from the 14th century, with the majority originating from the 15th century, though fragments from the first half of the 16th century were also found. The Szentgyörgyi family died out in 1543; contemporary charters do not mention the castle, which by then was almost certainly abandoned. The settlement of Konyha was subsequently annexed to Detrekő Castle.
Konyha Castle essentially consisted of two completely independent parts. The “great castle” comprised two quadrangular towers built facing each other, connected by a defensive wall running along the edge of the oval plateau, thus forming a closed inner courtyard. This was the central core of the castle, measuring approximately 45 by 17 meters. This central core was surrounded by a lower defensive wall encircling the hillside at a distance of about 8 meters, followed by another defensive line, likely a palisade, about 8 meters further out.
The internal dimensions of the western tower are 4.1 by 4.3 meters, with a maximum wall thickness of 2 meters, which may indicate a residential function. However, it cannot be ruled out that the similarly sized eastern tower served both defensive and residential purposes, especially since no traces of another residential building have been found. Fallen fragments of the wall connecting the two towers are still visible 10-20 meters below the plateau. The castle’s entrance was from the east, where a smaller outer bailey, separated by a ditch, stood; the ditches could be crossed via bridges.
About 120-150 meters east of the castle, traces of an independent fortification are visible. It is located roughly 12 meters higher than the castle, with a protected area measuring 23 by 17 meters. The role of this “small castle” is unclear; it could have been an outer bailey to the main castle, a watchpost, or even a so-called siege castle, positioned directly against the castle itself. Only archaeological research could clarify this.
Source: Szöllősi Gábor https://varlexikon.hu/konyha-var
Here are more pictures of Konyha Castle’s ruins: