Four-wing block building with a courtyard, characterized by austere facades with cannon loopholes and tower-shaped bay windows on the corners that were part of the defense signaling system. The core of the old chateau is the original Romanesque Basilica of the Virgin Mary with three ships built before the Tartar invasion. The fortress is surrounded by massive stone fortifications with round bastions. The fortification also involved the Gothic residential tower Himmelreich, a karner and a massive prismatic gate, today highlighted by a richly profiled roof. A staircase with stone portals and fragments of wall paintings has been preserved since the Renaissance reconstruction. The remains of the Gothic church are documented by fragments of vaults, a burst, the original vaulted presbytery and a circular staircase.The exhibitions at the Old Castle represent the history of the whole Banská Štiavnica region. The old castle is an example of various building styles - from the Romanesque chapel of St. Michael to the baroque entrance tower.

The importance of the town of Banská Štiavnica before the Tartar invasion is also evidenced by the existence of two monumental church buildings - the Dominican Church on the lower edge of the medieval town and the parish church, a three-nave Romanesque basilica built in the cemetery with a Romanesque carner between two valleys. The town, which had belonged to the property of Hungarian queens since 1424 and which supported the queen widow Elizabeth and the interests of her underage son Ladislav Pohrobek in the dynastic struggles after the death of King Albrecht, was attacked in May 1442 by the troops of its opponents headed by Simon Rozgonyi. Banská Štiavnica was looted and burned. A year later, the city was hit by an earthquake. The inhabitants thought more and more about their safety and fortified the parish church of the Virgin Mary with a wall reinforced with bastions.

In the years 1495 to 1515, the church was rebuilt into a basilica and the fortifications were added round bastions and cannon openings. The fortifications were supplemented by a moat and a rampart, which were completed after an increase in the Turkish threat, which also changed the entire reconstruction of the complex. A significant strengthening of the walls of the basilica created a defensive fortress - a town castle, which was to protect the mining town.

In the 1660s, further modifications were made and the last significant work on the defense complex was carried out in 1777, when the entrance tower was rebuilt. In the 19th century, when the original function of the fortress no longer existed, part of it served the needs of the city archives, library, city police, but also as a butcher's ice house or gym. Since 1900, the Old Castle has served as a city museum and the complex has been a national cultural monument since 1950.

Himmelreich

The premises of the Himmelreich prismatic tower, incorporated into the outer fortifications, contrary to the name - translated as the kingdom of heaven, were used as a prison and torture chamber.

Lost women

The Templars settled in Banská Štiavnica. They rebuilt their monastery into a castle and took care of the security of the city. People respected them. Soon there was no hearing of thefts, raids or other robberies. It was all the more surprising when one day the townspeople began to lose their daughters. They sought them in vain, along with the Templars. They found no sign of them anywhere. Only once in the church in the Old Castle did a beggar fall asleep. It was night when he was awake from a dream and noticed a red monk descending into the underground by candlelight with a basket full of food. Burning with curiosity, he looked behind him and ran to City Hall in the morning to announce what he had seen. The Templars kept the lost women in a crypt under the altar. Pretending to free them from the hands of the kidnappers, they wanted to exchange them for gold. Outraged townspeople saved the poor, hanged the command of the Templars, expelled the other red monks from Banská Štiavnica and used their seat as a town castle.

Opening hours and admission

https://www.muzeumbs.sk/sk/stary-zamok

https://www.hrady-zamky.sk/stary-zamok/