‘Szadvar Castle – its Foes and its Friends’ is a documentary of the medieval Szadvar Castle in the north of Hungary and The Friends of Szadvar, a brilliant group of volunteers who were founded to save Szadvar Castle from being forgotten.  Together they research, excavate and conserve the castle, making it more accessible to the general public.

 Karen Culver, alumna of CEU Cultural Heritage Studies Programme talks to volunteer and professional archaeologists involved in The Friends of Szadvar during their regular excavation & conservation week in August 2020.  The Friends tell the history of the castle, how a volunteer-based heritage association works, and why they feel it is important for volunteers to ‘adopt’ a castle.  They also describe many of the exciting archaeological finds made during the week-long excavation.  The programme includes music by the medieval band Hollóének Hungarica.

This episode is a special, one-hour-long documentary style episode of Past Perfect!, CEU Medieval Radio’s show on medieval and early modern history and culture. The discussions are made with the aim to popularize medieval and early modern studies with the help of experts such as early musicians, historians, philologists and archeologists.

This episode was recorded in August 2020.