Culture & Arts
Banská Štiavnica is a town where history meets a rich cultural and artistic scene.
Its lanes breathe history, yet pulse with contemporary life. The town has plenty of museums and galleries that bring its rich history and art closer to visitors – from the Open-air Mining Museum, where you can experience the authentic atmosphere of mining life, to modern galleries showcasing contemporary art. Throughout the year, Banská Štiavnica hosts numerous festivals celebrating music, theatre, literature and film.
The historic town centre is inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List and is home to many monuments, such as the Old Castle and the New Castle, St Catherine’s Church and the Calvary. Each of these buildings tells its own story and adds to the town’s unique atmosphere. If you’re looking for interactive experiences, there are exhibitions such as the Bank of Love, where you can discover the longest love poem in the world, or the Glanzenberg Hereditary Adit, which takes you underground right beneath the town. Banská Štiavnica is a place where everyone finds something to enjoy – whether you are a history or art lover, or just looking for new experiences.
This summer festival for all ages takes place within the walls of the Old Castle in early August. You can try your hand at all kinds […]
At the beginning of August, the main square of Banská Štiavnica turns for one day into a bustling craft market – Nezabudnuté remeslá, or ‘Unforgotten Crafts’. […]
This summer weekend music festival brings you a cross-section of the most interesting jazz, fusion and crossover. The line-up features many young Slovak talents as well […]
This four-day summer film festival is one of the oldest in Slovakia. It brings quality films from all over the world, together with discussions, interesting guests, […]
This Czech-Slovak festival of devised theatre invites artists from the Czech Republic and Slovakia to spend a short residency here creating site-specific performances on a topical […]
Festival peknej hudby (the ‘Festival of Fine Music’) is a one-day summer festival devoted mainly to classical music. Over the years, St Catherine’s Church, the Old […]
Výlov krokodíla (‘Catching the Crocodile’) is a light-hearted summer event in Banská Belá that re-enacts an incident from 1962. That night, several tipsy residents of Halča […]
A summer event in which a giant game of chess truly comes to life. Two leading grandmasters play blindfold, and real fencers fight it out according […]
Miners believed in supernatural beings that they did not want to anger under any circumstances. That is why they were not allowed to kill any living […]