Banská Štiavnica - mesto svetového dedičstva

Architecture and Urbanism

The World Heritage Area represents a unique complex of habitations in symbiosis with the landscape environment which have changed over a long period of time into a cultural and technical landscape. Dominating is the town of Banská Štiavnica, representing a harmony of urbanism, landscape and use of its potential in the interests of the prosperity of the society. The richness of the region in precious metals  stimulated not only the beginning of its settlement but also the growth of the prospering town, evidenced by its magnificent architecture. Respect for landscape conditions, represented by the dramatic terrain relief and the straitened conditions of the valleys, emphasize the dynamism of the built-up area. The dominant architecture (the Old Castle, the New Castle, the parish church, the Calvary, etc.) is accentuated  by the town creating burgher architecture in rows of compact urban structure, which towards the edges of the town passes into more dispersed mining built-up settlement. The distance between the Romanesque churches, the parish one at the foot of Paradajz and the Dominican at the south edge of the town, shows that Banská Štiavnica in its early beginnings belonged among the largest towns in the Hungarian Empire. The town developed in an immediate contact with mining activities what is documented by several preserved mining works directly in the town centre (connection of the burgher houses to the adits of galleries).

The existing exterior and interior image of the historic town is a result of its continual development, reflecting political and economic conditions as well as style changes, with preservation of the urban and architectural peak of the town's development from the end of the 18th century, and from its further short term prosperity at the end of the 19th century.

The most important objects documenting the significance and history of the town were declared to be the National Cultural Monuments (11 buildings of the former Mining Academy and the Renaissance fortress of the Old Castle).

Out of other important monuments of the town, worth of attention are the following:

Sacred buildings:
 The Dominican Church, today a parish church in Classicist style, originally a Romanesque one with a monastery.
 The late Gothic Church of St. Catherine with its rich original interior (late Gothic stone baptismal font, wall paintings, sculptures, panel paintings).
 The late Gothic funeral chapel of the Snowy Virgin Mary on Frauenberg Hill from 1512.
 The presbytery of the originally Gothic Church of St Elizabeth.
 The Classicist Evangelical Church from the beginning of the 19th century with precious liturgical instruments.
 The Romanesque chapel above an ossuary in the fortified Old Castle complex.
 The unique Baroque Calvary complex on Schaffenberg Hill.

Fortification system:
 The Old Castle - the Renaissance anti-Turkish fortification from the middle of the 16th century, rebuilt from the originally Romanesque parish church.
 The New Castle - the Renaissance anti-Turkish guard tower.
 The Piarg Gate - originally Renaissance entrance gate from Štiavnické Bane with expressive Baroque decorations.

Purpose-built objects:
 The Kammerhof - the seat of the Court Chamber and  of the Head Chamber Earl's Office. It was a part of the Renaissance fortification of the town (the preserved circular bastion) and later utilized by the Mining Academy.
 The Town Hall, built at the fork of two valleys in the centre of the historic core, is an expressive dominant of the urban structure. Its existing architecture is the result of style changes from the 16th century to considerable rebuilding at the end of the 18th century (interior, wall paintings).
 The mining Knocking Tower from the end of the 17th century.
 Buildings of the Mining and Forestry Academy - National Cultural Monuments. There are 11 of them, including several adapted from  original burgher magnificent Renaissance palaces, as well as the complex of school objects built on purpose in the 19th century with the adjacent Botanical Gardens.

Burgher architecture:
 The urban structure of the town took form as a result  of the building  of the burgher houses as early as the 15th century. In such a way, a notable complex of these splendid burgher houses, so called Waldburgher ( mine owner) palaces, developed around the only larger landscape relief space, above the Church of St. Catherine. Mining activities are  evidenced also at this central square, where the adits into the galleries are a part of the existing cellar spaces touching the rocky massif. Another built-up area of burgher houses is located along the both sides of the main road leading from Svätý Anton to Štiavnické Bane. The straitened geographical conditions determined the terraced method of building the houses along the parallel streets on the slopes of the valley. The existing built-up area on the slopes is of smaller density and passes into more dispersed built-up mining settlement, situated in the natural environment.

The artistic complement  of the inner town and the elements of the small architecture:
The remarkable identity of the town includes spatial artistic sculptures, preserved historic pavement of the town (ryolite, wooden staircases, etc.), the system of retaining walls, narrow neighbouring streets, as well as other historic elements of the small architecture. The most significant sculptural monument in Banská Štiavnica is the grand  Baroque plague memorial with the statuary of the Holy Trinity, which was designed by a famous sculptor of Italian origin Dionýz Stanetti, and is located in the centre of Trinity Square.