Banská Štiavnica - mesto svetového dedičstva

From the 17th century

During the 17th century, open-surface mining activities decreased owing to the  exhaustion of the accessible ore bearing veins  also thanks to regular use of gunpowder for ore blasting. This led to the stagnation of the town. The contacts of Banská Štiavnica with other European mining centres  focused on attempts to find specialists for pumping mining waters, as well as sufficient supply of water for treatment devices. Thanks to the genius of M.K.Hell, S.Mikovíni and J.K.Hell, the water reservoir system and water pumping devices were developed in the 18th century, what contributed a lot not only to the prosperity of mining but also to the significance of the town. Banská Štiavnica became the most important centre of precious metal mining in the Habsburg monarchy.

In 1735 the first mining school in Hungary was founded in Banská Štiavnica. After the establishment of the Mining Academy in 1762, Banská Štiavnica became the centre of mining science and technology in Europe.

This period of economic prosperity also stimulated growth of the town which changed its appearance. The old dominants began to take on a Baroque form, facades and interiors were uniformed. Several monuments in the modern Baroque and Classical styles were built (the Calvary in 1751, the Evangelical Church in 1796) and, in the centre of Tinity Square, the Baroque plague column with the statuary of Holy Trinity was erected (in 1755 - 1764). At the end of the 19th century, mining in the ore district of Banská Štiavnica became unprofitable and the town turned to be significant from an important mining centre to that of education. The complex of buildings on purpose was constructed for the needs of the Mining and Forestry Academy (in 1892 - 1912).

When the Mining Academy moved from Banská Štiavnica, the town suffered another decline. In spite of the foundation of manufacturing businesses in the south edge of the town, the number of inhabitants also declined.

From the 13th to the 19th centuries Banská Štiavnica was known in the whole Europe, but also in other countries of the world, as one of the most significant centres  of gold and silver exploitation, and at the same time, as the most important world centre of mining science, technology and education in the 18th century. Banská Štiavnica was a focal point of the most significant scientists and travellers coming from different countries of the world during all this time. Many works of literature, published abroad and sustaining witness to the past glory of this town, were preserved up to the present. Banská Štiavnica is affixed in the awareness of the world public by the unique collections of minerals found in its underground, which is regarded to be the most notable world deposit of minerals. The most significant and the most precious world mineralogical collections are based mostly on minerals from Štiavnica's underground.

Banská Štiavnica was brought into world awareness mostly at the period of the existence of the Mining Academy (from 1846 the Mining and Forestry Academy), which was founded by an order of Empress Maria Theresa in 1762, and which began its activity in 1764. This was the first school of its kind in the world and existed here until 1919. The most significant specialists in the fields of mining,, smelting and forestry from Europe worked at the Academy and it was their merit that several world discoveries and inventions originated there. The Academy served as a model for  founding of the Paris Polytechnics in 1795. The teaching of chemistry there achieved a high standard, too. In the last decades of the 18th century the laboratories for chemistry were the best equipped ones within Europe, where a lot of significant European chemists did their experiments. Results of the works of the Academy professors were highly acclaimed by such personalities as Lavoiser and other scientists of the 18th and 19th centuries. It was thanks to the Mining Academy professors that, in 1786, the first international scientific congress was held in Sklené Teplice, close to Banská Štiavnica, the first international scientific society was founded there, and where the foundations for the origin of the first international scientific magazine ,  „Bergbaukunde" („Mining"), were laid. The Academy trained more than 10,000 specialists in the fields of mining, smelting and forestry, a lot of whom became the most important professionals in various parts of the world.
In the 18th century, the world most sophisticated mining water management system of that time was completed in Banská Štiavnica and its vicinity, which was the basis for the origin of the progressive mining, treatment and water pumping technology in Banská Štiavnica's ore district. The technology spread out also to other world mining centres. Several hundred years of Banská Štiavnica's mining glory are documented by a lot of preserved technical monuments and sites, the greater part of which is presented on the premises of  the Open-Air Mining Museum.  Precious evidences are also displayed in other expositions of the Slovak Mining Museum. The archival documents concerning the past high level and significance of Banská Štiavnica's mining, mining science, technology and education are deposited in the State Central Mining Archives in Banská Štiavnica.

Each year more and more tourists from all over the world come to visit the town and its vicinity because besides the cultural, historic and technical monuments of world importance, the whole area is rare also by its unique natural beauties. Nowadays, promising scientific work is being done in Banská Štiavnica, especially in the field of landscape ecology, as well as  in education and training in this and other related scientific fields with considerable international contacts.