More than 390 years ago, the local mines saw the world’s first documented use of gunpowder for something other than warfare: blasting in a mine.
It took place in the Upper Bieber Adit in what was then Piarg (today the village of Štiavnické Bane). Using gunpowder to blast rock was nothing short of a revolution, as it raised productivity in the mines by several hundred per cent. Until then, everything had been dug by hand.
