Banská Štiavnica - mesto svetového dedičstva

Surrounding of Banská Štiavnica

In the area of the ore bearing veins, directly located on the actual places of mining, arose other settlements outside Banská Štiavnica, in similar geographical, political and economic conditions. These  settlements, except for Štiavnické Bane and Hodruša-Hámre, did not achieve the significance and urban dimension of Banská Štiavnica. In spite of that, there were preserved a lot of important architectural and technical monuments as well as the intact character of historic urbanism in natural and technical landscape (waste dumps, reservoirs, canals, open-surface excavations).

Above the village of Ilija, a church with a rare Romanesque portal and rich furnishings was preserved.

In Štiavnické Bane, as the centre of important technical discoveries, a considerable part of the Renaissance fortification with a watch tower, the Baroque monastery complex of the Hieronymitan Order with a church, and other important cultural monuments connected with mining (administration buildings, mining school, mining hospital and others) were preserved.

Banská Belá, in some periods administered by Banská Štiavnica,  in spite of the fact that it was one of the seven central Slovak mining towns,  preserved  its countryside character due to the hilly terrain. The most important cultural monuments comprise the late Romanesque parish church, the Church of the Carmelite Virgin Mary,  the Renaissance school building, the Rococo chapel of St. John the Nepomuk and others.

The old mining village of Vyhne is located in the deep cut of the valley of the same name. Its particularity is the natural reserve of the Stone Sea. As early as the 15th century the spa was founded in Vyhne, which still exists today. 

In Hodruša-Hámre, another mining settlement in the sloping terrain, the dispersed urban structure  was preserved with the following noticable monuments: originally the Gothic Church of St. Nicolas, the late Gothic Church of Peter and Paul in the area of a cemetery and the mining Knocking Tower from the beginning of the 17th century. 

The village of Svätý Anton is dominated by the monumental Baroque manor-house from 1744 - 1751,  built in a style influenced by Vienna (on the site of an older building - a water castle). Despite of later adaptations, the manor-house preserved its original character, architectural and artistic decorations, and partially also its original interior furnishings. The premises of the manor house, declared to be a Natural Cultural Monument, include also a large Baroque granary  and the chapel of St. John the Nepomuk with a crypt. A part of the complex is also the park   in Baroque style blending in with  the surrounding forests.