About this route
Route overview
Banská Štiavnica (Schemnitz, Selmecbánya) was inscribed on the UNESCO list in 1993 as the Historic Town of Banská Štiavnica and the Technical Monuments in its Vicinity — a medieval Slovak mining town and, in the 18th century, the third-largest city of the Kingdom of Hungary after Bratislava and Debrecen (24,000 inhabitants in 1782) and the most important silver and gold mining centre of the Habsburg empire. Founded in the 12th century by German miners, in 1762 Empress Maria Theresa established here the worlds first higher mining academy Banícka akademia (predecessor of the academies in Leoben, Freiberg and St Petersburg — cradle of modern geology and metallurgy). The Old Castle (Starý zámok from 1497 — rebuilt in the 16th century as an anti-Turkish fortification with bastions, today housing mining and minting museums and a viewing tower), the New Castle (Nový zámok from 1571 — a white six-storey watchtower against the Turks with a museum of the anti-Ottoman campaigns), Trinity Square (Námestie sv. Trojice) with the 1764 Baroque plague column by Dionys Stanetti, the Dominican church and the Mining Court House. The Banská Štiavnica Calvary from 1745 — a Baroque pilgrimage complex on the steep volcanic Scharfenberg hill (regarded as the finest Baroque calvary in Central Europe, 23 stations, a lower and upper church), restored from 2008 to 2019. The system of tajchy (artificial mining reservoirs from 1741-1853 — 60 ponds with 100 km of channels, a unique hydrotechnical system, todays bathing lakes) is the second UNESCO component. 220 km via the A4 and A6 motorways to Bratislava and the D1 and road 51 to Žarnovica, 3 h. The service runs 24/7. From EUR 800 in a Mercedes E-Class for 1-3 passengers, from EUR 1000 in a V-Class for 4-6.