| Čachtice | |
| Other Name: | Csejte (Hungarian) |
| Settlement Type: | Village |
| Subdivision Type: | Country |
| Subdivision Name: | Slovakia |
| Subdivision Type2: | Region |
| Subdivision Name2: | Trenčín |
| Subdivision Type3: | District |
| Subdivision Name3: | Nové Mesto nad Váhom |
| Pushpin Map: | Slovakia Trenčín Region#Slovakia |
| Pushpin Relief: | 1 |
| Pushpin Map Caption: | Location of Čachtice in the Trenčín Region |
| Coordinates: | 48.7167°N 17.7833°W |
| Established Title: | First mentioned |
| Established Date: | 1248 |
| Area Total Km2: | 32.56[1] |
| Area Total Sq Mi: | 12.57 |
| Elevation M: | 182[2] |
| Elevation Ft: | 597 |
| Population Total: | 3654[3] |
| Population Density Km2: | 112.95[4] |
| Population Density Sq Mi: | 43.61 |
| Postal Code Type: | Postal code |
| Postal Code: | 916 21 |
| Area Code: | +421 32 |
| Blank Name: | Car plate |
| Blank Info: | NM |
| Website: | www.cachtice.sk |
Čachtice (in Slovak pronounced as /ˈtʂaxcitse/, Hungarian: Csejte) is a village in Nové Mesto nad Váhom District in western Slovakia with a population of 4,010 (as of 2014).
The village is situated between the Danubian Lowland and the Little Carpathians. It is best known for the ruins of the nearby Čachtice Castle, home of Erzsébet Báthory. The castle stands on a hill featuring rare plants, and the area was declared a national nature reserve (Čachtický hradný vrch) for this reason.
Prehistoric settlements from the neolithic, eneolithic, Bronze Age, Hallstatt period, La Tène period, Roman periods and the early Slavic period have been found here.
The first written reference to the village dates from 1263. Čachtice has received the status of a town in 1392, but it was later degraded back to a village. In 1847 the parsonage was the meeting place of the first Slovak national and cultural society Tatrín, at which the definitive decision to use the central Slovak dialects as the basis for the new standard of the codified Slovak language was adopted. Before the establishment of independent Czechoslovakia in 1918, Čachtice was part of Nyitra County within the Kingdom of Hungary. From 1939 to 1945, it was part of the Slovak Republic.
See also: Čachtice Castle.
The castle was built in the 13th century in order to protect a trade route to Moravia. The most famous owner was the Countess Erzsébet Báthory, whose bloody legends were based on rumors. There was national process against her. According to the alleged murders, the questioned witnesses answered that they just heard the stories by others. Erzsébet's four servants testified (under torture), and they were executed quickly. György Thurzó, and the soldiers found an alive "prey" girl in the castle, and there is no document that they asked her what had happened to her. There was no real confession against the Countess. Historians now agrees that the story was a discrediting, conceptual litigation.[5] She was imprisoned in her own castle and died there in 1614. The castle was abandoned in 1708 and now lies in ruins. Recently, the castle has undergone minor reconstructions.
The records for genealogical research are available at the state archive "Statny Archiv in Bratislava, Slovakia"