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.
In the past, almost every burgher house in Štiavnica had its own adit. Just 75 metres long, the Michal Adit in the Berggericht is the shortest […]
The mining water management system, now inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List, was the world’s biggest water engine until the Panama Canal opened (15 August […]
The oldest, the most beautiful and the only show mine for miles around that is almost always dry – a mine where mainly gold and silver […]
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 […]
Once a bastion forming part of the anti-Ottoman fortifications, today it houses an exhibition reached by exactly 175 steps. It tells the life story of Maximilian […]