The ruins of Rezi Castle stand on the promontory of the 418 m high dolomite ridge of Meleg-hegy overlooking the Zalaszántó Basin. The name Rezi first appears in 1236. At that time, it belonged to the Zala royal castle. The castle was built on a dolomite rock in the northern part of Meleg-hegy, which rises above the village. Of the mountain castle built in the 13th-14th centuries, only the eastern wall of the residential tower, the eastern and western walls of the castle with traces of a few windows and barrel vaults remain today. The 120-180 cm thick walls that still stand today are 8-10 m high. The construction of the earliest part of the castle is attributed to Zlandus, bishop of Veszprém (1244-1262). In 1346, King Louis the Great donated the castle to István Lackfi. The long, irregularly shaped mountain castle with an inner tower was only completed in the 14th century. It was first mentioned in a document in the second half of the 16th century (1378) under the name “Castrum Rezi”. The castle became a royal property again in 1397, and was mortgaged several times by King Sigismund from 1401. Sigismund donated the castle to Péter and László Pethő of Gersei in 1427. From then on, the members of the Pethő family owned Rezi Castle and its surroundings undisturbed for centuries. After the defeat at the Battle of Mohács (1526), ​​when Buda also fell into Turkish hands in 1541, the importance of Rezi Castle increased, and it was therefore strengthened around 1555. The castle was a refuge for the people of the area. From the end of the 16th century, the military role of Rezi Castle ceased. From 1592 onwards, we can read about the ruined Rezi Castle. After the male branch of the Gersei Pethő family died out, the estates belonging to Rezi Castle passed to the treasury in 1729 as unclaimed estates. The ruined castle of Rezi and the castle's revenues were purchased by Kristóf Festetics in 1741. From then on, the castle remained in the family's ownership until 1945. Its walls crumbled for centuries, until its archaeological excavation and restoration began in 2000. Now, its 3D reconstruction has been completed. After the long-awaited external reconstruction of Rezi, we tried to reconstruct the interior spaces as well. Although the walls remained in a rather dilapidated state, we were still able to get some clues. The remains of the staircase next to the door of the two towers at the entrance - the smaller one on the right - were excavated by archaeologist László Vándor. There was a comfortable representative staircase here. So we put the guard's room here, and the castle chapel on the level above it. Above this was the reception hall. At the bottom of the other tower next to it, the foundations of a fireplace were discovered. This could have been a kitchen. In the Gothic castle, when the Renaissance residential tower was not yet expanded, this tower could have served as a residence. Here could be the women's house, the men's house, the reception or great hall, and at the top was the guard's quarters. The first level might have been the castle governor's room. A spiral staircase was added between the levels, where the very thick wall made this possible by analogy. Thus, every habitable castle needs: a kitchen, a reception hall, a women's house, a men's house, accommodation for service personnel, a chapel, an armory, and accommodation for the military and the guard, as well as a baking house, ovens for the accommodation of the castle captain or the castle governor, warehouses, storage and some stables, and a carriage house. We inferred the vaults on the lower level of the Renaissance residential tower and the wall remains above it, where their imprint remained, and the original plaster and whitewashing served as a good reference point. The basement and ground floor vault of the Renaissance residential tower were given, it was easy to create the spaces here, presumably the women's house and the men's house were on the upper two floors, there could have been wooden ceilings here, and we added an internal spiral staircase between them. The design of the toilet was also interesting, archaeologist László Vándor found the water-flushing channel, which collected rainwater and led the water to the bottom of the toilet under the floor tiles of the lower floor, where it was flushed. A similar water-flushing solution can be found in the Visegrád Palace. The Rezi castle ruin is today one of the oldest historical monuments in the Keszthely region. The film reflects the state of the castle and its surroundings at the end of the 13th and 14th centuries. Using the instructions of teacher and local historian László Szekér József and the help of archaeologist László Vándor. References: Castle Lexicon https://varlexikon.hu/rezi Rezi https://www.rezi.hu/rezi-var/ varlexikon.hu Gyula Sümegi Székesfehérvár 2025.