The ruin of Drégely Castle sits on a 440-metre-high (1,440 ft) peak of the Börzsöny mountains in Hungary.

The small castle was probably built by the Bozók branch of the Hunt-Poznan family in the second half of the 13th century, during the Árpád dynasty, by order of Béla IV.

In 1390 King Sigismund exchanged the castle with the Tary family for lands in Somogy county.

It became part of the border castle system designed to repel invaders of the Ottoman Empire.

In 1552 Hadim Ali Pasha of Buda laid siege to the castle at Veszprém and captured it on 2 June.

The defenders of the castle consisted of 120 men hired by King Ferdinand and 26 warriors sent by the royal mining town of Banská Štiavnica (then Schemnitz or Selmec).

After the Hungarian refusal Ali the castle's outer wooden wall be set on fire.

Szondy asked Ali to educate the two boys in exchange for the release of the two Turkish prisoners, and for himself to be buried with full honours.

As reply to Szondy's repeated refusal Turkish troops started a decisive attack on the castle.

The fall of Drégely started a chain of defeats of castles of Hont and Nógrád counties.

The royal army belatedly tried to stop the Turkish troops at Plášťovce (then Palást) but in a two-days battle they were utterly routed, and 4,000 German and Italian warriors were deported to Istanbul.