Prievidza. Bojnice Castle:

Bojnice Castle. Not Boj-NEETS Castle, but BOY-neet-sa Castle, near the city of Prievidza, Trencin region.

Bojnice Castle: evolved from a medieval fortress, through a Renaissance remodel, to a 19th Century fantasy to lure a lady

A visit here combines history with a summer youth theater festival — of the originating story in tableau and narrative, There is a zoo, and a street fair ongoing.  Not to be missed.

How to get there if you cannot say the name?

Most travel books have a basic pronunciation guide:  master the basics to speed getting directions.  It dates from the decline of the Great Moravian Empire, with Slavs fleeing to remove valleys invading Hungarians, and building mountaintop fortresses and castles; and to the 1100’s, when Benedictine monks acquired it; connected to Zobor Abbey at Nitra.  Slovakia had been known as Northern Hungary.

Personalize history and speak the names.  The castle changed hands among noble families over the centuries, from Hungary, Poland and Germany.  Hungarian King Vaclav II, to Hungarian Ladislav Opolsky to Matus Cak in the 13th Century.  In 1449, King Matej wrote his royal decrees here (under a linden tree); and gave it to his illegitimate son, Jan Korvin.  With succession problems, the castle went out of royalty to a Hungarian aristocrat,  Jan Zapolsky.  In 1529, the Hungarian Thurzos took over and turned the fortress into a Renaissance-style palace.  In 1646, the noble Palffey family settled in. In the 19th Century, Count Jan Palffey remodeled it further, to imitate the French castles of the Loire Valley, another Sleeping Beauty location. He filled it with huge and small furnishings from Europe, including massive pieces from Italy and Serbia, see http://www.slovakia.com/castles/bojnice/ and http://www.slovakheritage.org/Townsvill/bojnice.htm