burgher's house Burgher house

Welcome to Banska Stiavnica, a city with fascinating history and a unique atmosphere that surrounds you at every turn. Right now, you are standing in front of a building that is a silent but significant witness to the changes that this city has seen in recent centuries. Before you lies the townhouse, which bears a trail of ancient times and represents the life of the inhabitants of this mining town. When you look at it, you may see only one of many historical houses in the first moment, but in fact there is an architectural solitaire in front of you who helps us understand how Banská Štiavnica evolved from a wooden settlement to a rich centre of administration and trade. To understand the meaning of this house, we must return to the Middle Ages for a while. At that time, the city was flooded with wooden buildings and gradually began to appear so-called tower houses, which testified to the ambitions and wealth of the then inhabitants. However, times changed, along with the needs of the city. During the seventeenth century, namely between the year thousand six hundred and a thousand seven hundred, the plots themselves began to change. Original smaller houses were rebuilt into magnificent city palaces. The reason was the need for a new area for county and military administration, which changed the overall face of the city and gave him a new, more official identity. It is in this context that the house you are facing has been created. Its present form dates from between the year thousand seven hundred thirty-three and a thousand seven hundred forty-six. It is a baroque solitaire from the second third of the eighth century. This house is not just an ordinary building, but it represents a typical burgher house from the late Renaissance and Baroque period. It is basically the embodiment of aesthetics and functionality when the city became the dominant force in the city and demanded housing that reflected its status and stability. Now take a closer look at the location of the building. Note that the house is located on a small micron square and is built as a corner building. This location is not random. It is thanks to the fact that the house stands at this point that fixed the original urban situation of the city. This means that although the surrounding area may have changed, this house keeps in space the original structure of streets and squares as planned hundreds of years ago. It's like an anchor at a time that allows us to imagine exactly where the old roads were going and where people met at a time when the city lived a completely different rhythm. When you overlook the facade and the overall appearance of the house, feel its stability. Although time did not pair everything, the house retained its overall expression and ground plan-space composition. This is very valuable because it allows us to see the house in almost the form in which unknown architects designed it almost three centuries ago. At the time, it was not just aesthetics, but a precise layout of the premises, which should serve both the being and the representative purpose. Let's go a little further in time into the nineteenth century. During this period, between the year thousand eight hundred and a thousand nine hundred, new types of buildings, namely rentals and pavlač houses, appeared in Banská Štiavnica. These buildings brought new dynamism to the city and changed the way people stayed. However, our burgher house remained a symbol of an older, more solid era, while the city grew around it and got thicker. An interesting detail you should be aware of is the ground floor of the house. If you look at the bottom of the building, you will see the outcome of the modernization from the twentieth century. There was a fundamental change in the way goods were sold and traded. In order to adapt to new economic conditions and customer needs, the parties of many houses, including this one, have been modernised. This contrast between the Baroque upper part and the modernized ground floor tells us a story about the city's adaptability and how the historic centre has changed so that it can still serve its inhabitants. You might wonder who lived in this house or what secrets it holds. Although the specific names of historical personalities associated with this house are not explicitly mentioned in the records, the house itself is a personality. It is an embodiment of anonymity of thousands of townsmen, craftsmen and merchants, who formed the ridges of Banská Štiavnica. Every detail of this building, from its corner location to its ground floor change, is a fragment of the great puzzle that forms the history of this city. The exact identity of its creators remains a mystery, since architects of that time often remained infamous, but their work survived centuries. It is fascinating to think of how many generations of people have passed through this door and how many conversations have taken place in these rooms, while regimes have changed behind the windows, technology has changed, and the city has become a world unique. Now that you have looked at this baroque solitaire and felt his atmosphere, we invite you to continue your research in Banská Štiavnica. The surroundings of this house and this entire micron square are full of other details that await discovery. Let yourself be guided by quiet streets, note wall textures and window shaping, as every building in this city has its own unique chronicle. Thank you for spending this short moment with us in front of this beautiful townhouse. We wish you a pleasant next walk and plenty of new experiences in this magic city.