A trip to the historic mining town of Kremnica

I was looking forward to visiting this historic mining town. One of the reasons is that I collect old coins and Kremnica was a city where they minted in large numbers. Another reason is that I like history and castles. Kremnica has a rich history and a castle, which meets my demanding requirements.

It is the last day of our holiday in Sklené Teplice. In the morning we pack our things and set off in the direction of Kremnica. We decided to visit her on the way home. After less than an hour of travel, we park in the parking lot under the city walls.

We go through the gate and enter the square. I am immediately enchanted by the plague column located in the square. It was built in 1772.At

    

At the same time there is a nice view of the town castle and the church of St. Catherine located on the castle hill.

I found the entrances to the castle on the internet, so my steps go right to the entrance gate.

   

   

Kremnica is a mining town in which gold and silver were mined. Since 1328, Kremnica has been a free royal mining town. This privilege was given to the town by the Hungarian king Karol Róbert of Anjou, who also established a mint here.The

The Kremnica Mint is the oldest existing mint in the world, which still mintes coins. The Kremnica gold florins were among the most valuable coins in Europe, and during its long existence the mint minted 21.5 million coins.

Mining and minting brought wealth and fame to the city. The Count of Comoros lived here. He stood at the head of the mining and coin chamber and, on behalf of the king, supervised the mining and excavation in 12 seats. In the 14th century, Kremnica was nicknamed the golden Kremnica. This was due to the amount of gold that was mined here.

And how did people even know about this gold? All thanks to the Kremnický stream, as legend has it. The Kremnický stream washed these treasures to the surface of the earth. People in the lower reaches found gold and advanced upstream. There was more and more gold until they came to the place where the stream flowed. Here they built the settlement of Kremnica, which was built of wood and stood in a different place than the current Kremnica. It was built lower downstream. Only later did the inhabitants build this beautiful historic city.

The privilege of a free mining royal town granted Kremnica several privileges. Residents had the right to mine business, to elect a mayor and a city council. Later, these privileges were supplemented by the exemption from royal customs, the acquisition of the right of the throat, the right of the townspeople to dispense wine and brewing beer, the market and fair law, which contributed to the development of the city.

Kremnica began to decline with a decline in mining. The available gold veins were mined and new ones were not available enough to start mining. An attempt to resume mining came from a Canadian company that planned to mine gold using the cyanide method. However, this method is not environmentally friendly. Fortunately, in 2014, the National Council of the Slovak Republic banned the use of such a method in Slovakia, which was also welcomed by the Mayor of Kremnica.

well thank you
 Happy New Year 2021 for everyone 🥳

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