|
Lying at the very heart of Slovakia's mountain ranges, the old medieval German mining town of BANSKA BYSTRICA (Neusohl) is a useful introduction to the area. Connected to the outlying districts by some of the country's most precipitous railways, it's also a handsome historic town in its own right - once you've made it through the tangled suburbs of the burgeoning cement and logging industries. Namestie SNP , the old medieval marketplace, is still the centre of life in Banska Bystrica. The black obelisk of the Soviet war memorial and a revolving fountain, enthusiastically chucking water over a pile of mossy rocks, form the square's centrepiece. One or two of the burgher houses bear closer inspection, particularly the Venetian House (Benickeho dom) at no. 16, with its slender first-floor arcaded loggia. The sgraffitoed building opposite is now an art gallery. Just a few doors down is the most imposing building on the square, the honey-coloured Thurzo Palace at no. 4, decorated like a piece of embroidery and sporting cute oval portholes, and now housing the town museum (Mon-Fri 8am-noon & 1-4pm, Sun 9am-noon & 1-4pm), with a small selection of folk art and period furniture. At the top end of the square, beyond the leaning clock tower, there's an interesting ensemble of buildings which is all that's left of the old castle. The first building in view is the last remaining barbican , curving snugly round a Baroque tower. Next door, the former town hall or radnica (Tues-Fri 9am-5pm, Sat & Sun 10am-4pm), a boxy little Renaissance structure, is now the town's main art gallery, which puts on temporary exhibitions from its extensive catalogue of twentieth-century Slovak art. Behind it is the rouge-red church of Panna Maria , which dates back to the thirteenth century; the north side chapel contains the town's greatest art treasure, a carved late-Gothic altarpiece by Master Pavol of Levoca. A short distance southeast of namestie SNP on Kapitulska, 200m south of the clock tower, is the SNP Museum at no. 23 (Tues-Sun: May-Sept 8am-6pm; Oct-April 9am-4pm), looking something like an intergalactic mushroom chopped in half and dating from  © 2003 by Rough Guides Ltd. as trustee for its Authors. Published by Rough Guides. All rights reserved. Rough Guides name is a trademark of Rough Guides Ltd. Buy the book here!
|
1969. The museum deals as best it can with the complex issues raised by the Slovak National Uprising (SNP) against the Nazis (and the Slovak puppet regime), which began on August 29, 1944, in Banska Bystrica and which was eventually crushed by the Germans two months later, just a month or so before the town's liberation. Outside on the grass you'll notice an exhibition of tanks, an armoured train and guns from the uprising amid the bushes and the town's last two surviving medieval bastions.
Your Tips For Banska Bystrica
|
