Banska Stiavnica Things to Do

Kalvaria, a calvary, was constructed at the apogee of the town's fortunes 1748-51, but now - and in spite of two restoration projects - badly damaged and derelict. Includes 24 stations of the cross. Management consultants are sent by their company `Accenture' in Bratislava to spend their weekends helping the restoration work (first task is to clear an access road for vehicles). The calvary is situated on a weirdly shaped volcanic tufa plug just outside town. There are other calvaries in the areas, such as at Horna Roven.

In the 19th century, when ore extraction was no longer economically viable (and I think the central mining administration was moved to Banska Bystrica), a forestry academy was opened. A grand Hungarian building, still with Hungarian inscriptions. But apparently Magyarisation meant that foreign students from Germany were no longer attracted, and ethnic tensions with the Slovak student body was also exacerbated.

The golden age of the Academies in Stiavnica was a short one: according to Farrar, who wrote a dissertation on the topic, only thirty years, between 1770 (when Empress Maria Theresa opened the first one) and 1800, when other European educational centres surpassed Stiavnica. The Stiavnica academy in his opinion `rapidly degenerated into a school for training civil servants' whilst others, such as Freiberg, in Saxony, produced highly trained technical experts at all levels (i.e. including humble mining workers, not just the `classe dirigeante')

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Lovely, clean water lakes originally designed in the 18th century to supply a constant stream of water to power the mining pumps (there are no flowing rivers of any size in the Stiavnicke vrchy). Samuel Mikoviny was the scientist/engineer to promote their use. Now they are centres of recreation and much loved by the local populace. You can buy special books on them in Tourist Information in town. There must be about 20-30 of them in the area.

Pociuvadlo jezero has a lot of amenities on its shores. You have at least two restaurants, two hotels (including one swish one, the Topky, oriented at a richer, older Austrian clientele), an animal farm, koliby (i.e. clearings in the forest with little simple restaurants), paddle boat hire. Just the right scale of things.

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At 1009 metres, it's not a particularly great feat to climb Sitno. Probably the most direct ascent is from Pociuvadlo, from which it takes c. 45 minutes to go up. On the top is a renovated wooden visitor's chalet with observation floor. The top of Sitno is covered with wild flowers in the summer: the late 19th century botanist and scientist Andrej K'met loved to come here and collect specimens for his herbarium, which ended up comprising 70.000 specimens.

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Visit to a country palace, most famously occupied by the last King of Bulgaria Ferdinand of Coburg, who was exiled after siding with the losing Germans in the First World War. Sumptuous nineteenth century Biedermeier rooms with luxury furniture, Chinese silk wallpapers, Japanese lacquer cabinets, Ottoman carpets, Bulgarian folk furniture, Italian statuary and staircases, Venetian paintings, English romantic gardens, local hunting trophies.

Jazznica 2008 included Czech solo singer Eva Bittova and the Polish 4-piece jazz outfit `Soundcheck'. Entry 300 SKK on the night.