Collection fund of the Slovak Mining Museum

The Slovak Mining Museum in Banská Sˇtiavnica belongs to museums of Slovak field activity and includes several exhibition departments: Natural history – collection of minerals and fossils in Berggericht building with 37,500 pieces. Historical – collections and exhibitions linked to specific community developments of miners in the region: archeology, history, numismatics, ethnography, development of architecture, lapidary. Exhibitions in the Old and New Castles of 17,628 pieces. Gallery – a collection of art-historical character from the region, modern fine art; for example sacral art, portraits of chamber earls, artists of the 20th century – the Gallery of Jozef Kollár of 3650 pieces. Technical – a unique Slovak collection with majority of objects from Banská Sˇtiavnica region – mining tools, lamps, models of mines, etc. 9651 pieces altogether. Open-air mining museum – situated in the original place of Ondrej’s shaft, the exhibition of ore extraction established 2 km far from the town in Bartolomej’s shaft of 1600 m length; a presentation of technical buildings, a coal exhibition and presently not exhibited houses of miners from other regions. The collections of the Slovak Mining Museum are of an unusual character. The majority of our collections originate from regional products, in no other museum you can find such a collection. The history of Banská Sˇtiavnica has always been connected with mining. The town was not transformed into a business-market place because it was not situated on trade routes, nor was it essential for the town because rich sources of ore were sufficient. Invention and implementation of technical innovations for increasing production of ore or its more effective processing, brought improvements in production. Various artists and architects, who created monumental pieces, sculptures of The Holy Trinity church and technical innovations of mining devices, were invited to work and left excellent examples of their work for everyday use, such as the interior of the Kammerhof building with frescos and ceramic tile stoves, goldsmith products for churches and parishes, documents of book culture from the 16th to 18th centuries. The collection includes many of these items.