A Valentine Tale of LOVE "Omar and Fatima"
Rule of the Zápoľský family at Trenčín castle produced one of the oldest and most admirable Slovak stories – the story of Omar, Fatima, and the Well of Love. A story is told of a Turkish nobleman (“pasha”) Omar and his love for beautiful Fatima who was held in captivity at the castle by Stephen Zápoľský.
To set her free, Omar promised to dig a well at the castle to make it really invincible. The story has it that Omar together with his 300 companions would spend three years trying to dig through the unyielding rock in search of the precious water. Finally, at the cost of the lives of almost all of his men, he was able to accomplish what he had promised. After saying: „Zápoľský, water hast thou, but not the heart“, Omar could take his dear Fatima back home with him. The story further tells us that as the couple was leaving, the bushes along the curved road to the castle would trap Fatima’s veil. Therefore, a tavern that would rise at this place in the 16th century was to bear the name “Veil”, later changed to today’s “Fatima”.
Originally, the building used to be a parish house, adjacent to the Church of The birth of Virgin Mary. However, the story of the well again would not render true picture of reality. In reality, works on the well began in the third decade of the 16th century, when soldiers of the Habsburg garrison at the castle, together with subjects living in Trenčín’s dominion, first began to dig.. It took them about forty years to reach the depth of almost 80 meters below the rock’s surface. Alexius Thurzo completed the well around 1570. Despite the fact that they never reached the spring, rainwater level in this artificial reservoir would still reach sufficient height. Today, the level is 12 - 15 meters high.
Nearby Gothic Chapel houses a permanent display featuring the castle’s Well of Love.
