In 1536 a Watch House was built on a steep spur with a good view over the main valley.
Watch posts like this one, set up to protect the mining towns of central Slovakia from the Ottomans, communicated with smoke and fire signals. In times of danger the watchmen ran to the Klopačka (Knocking Tower) and raised the alarm throughout the village.
For a thousand years Hodruša was part of the royal mining town of Štiavnica, but it was not allowed to fortify the centre of the village. Thanks to the guards at the Wachthaus (Watch House) and the fire-signal system from Kopanice, it at least received early warning, so that its inhabitants could flee to the hills or take refuge in the fortified churches.
