Štiavnické Bane

Originally called Piarg (from the German Berg), the village was formed by merging the mining settlements of Siglisberg and Windschacht. Štiavnické Bane was once the heart of mining in the whole region and, as such, of world importance.

Piarg was renamed Štiavnické Bane only in 1948, and the village of Horná Roveň was later joined to it. The Upper Bieber Adit was known as the ‘Mother of All Mines’, because it yielded more gold and silver than any other mine in the world had done until then. In 1627, the use of gunpowder for extracting ore was documented here for the first time in the world.

From 1735, Samuel Mikovíni taught mining specialists geometry, cartography and surveying here, later joined by geology, metallurgy and mining law. On this foundation the Mining Academy was established, the world’s first mining university, which trained experts for the whole world.

In 1710, Matej Kornel Hell submitted a proposal to the emperor in Vienna for the construction of tajch Veľká Vindšachta (a historic mining reservoir). Water from the tajch drove the pumps that drained groundwater from the flooded mines and saved mining in the Štiavnica Mountains for centuries to come. An ingenious system of 60 interconnected tajchs, together with underground tunnels and water-column pumps, formed the world’s biggest water engine.

The concentration of mining-related technical monuments here is so exceptional that the area was declared a heritage reserve of technical monuments. Today the Piarg tajchs are used mainly for recreation – for swimming and water sports in summer, and for ice skating and cold-water swimming in winter. You can walk and cycle along the old mining ditches, and go cross-country skiing on them in winter.