Orava Castle

Orava Castle (Oravský hrad) is built on a limestone spur a hundred and twelve metres above the Orava river and stacks in five separate levels up the rock, so that the highest courtyard is reached by several hundred steps from the lowest. Nothing in Slovakia looks more like a fortress from the outside. Murnau filmed Nosferatu here in 1922 and used the silhouette as Count Orlok's castle, which is why the profile is familiar to people who have never heard of Orava. The rooms hold a regional museum of the valley. The full circuit takes about ninety minutes and a lot of stairs.