On the way from Budapest to Krakow, we went through Slovakia. We stopped by a beautiful city call Banska Bystrica as the most important historical, cultural and economic centre of the central Slovakia. The earliest history of Banská Bystrica was connected with the exploitation of its abundant deposits of copper. We walked to the downtown, it's free time around two and a half hours including lunch.
Nobody told us about the history and the beautiful building at downtown, so we just took many pictures surrounding by beautiful buildings. The weather was nice, quite mild and the town was not too crowded, it's perfect to enjoy it. It lies in the the middle of Europe on the banks of the river Hron surrounded by breathtaking scenary of Low Tatras, Kremnické Vrchy and Slovenské Rudohorie mountains.
The slender Hodinová veža tower (The Clock Tower) built in 1552 was dominated and became the central attraction at the main square. In front of the tower was The Plague column of the Virgin Mary. While City Barbican (Banská Bystrica Town Castle) located next to the tower was once formed by several ancient buildings in the central Slovakian metropolis Banská Bystrica. Its task was to protect the income proceedings of copper and silver mining for the royal treasury.
Across City Barbican was St. Francis Xavier Cathedral Built in 1715 on the site of the chapel of St. John the Baptist and on the house called Oberhaus. The church with one nave is the copy of the church " Il Gesù" in Rome. It is a Baroque building, later transformed into the classical style. The dominant twin-towers were built during the renovations in 1844. The church's interior from the first half of the 19th century consist of the Empire main altar, the side altars and the pulpit.
Continue walking we could find the historic Radnica (townhall) of Banská Bystrica then we could find Thurzos house, the social science exposition of the Museum of Central Slovakia. It is formed from two Gothic houses completed with some Renaissance elements. As we didn't notice it at that time, we didn't visit the museum. Many cafes were available along the streets for people to take a rest while they still could enjoy the scenery.
Strolling the lower part of Námestie SNP, the natural center of the city, we found an art fountain and a black Obelisk in Slovak National Uprising Square as the memorial to honor the Soviet soldiers killed during the liberation of the city in 1945.
We stopped by to buy ice cream, before continue exploring the street. So many beautiful small shops selling souvenirs, clothes, handy-craft etc. My friends liked to buy clothes, we spent some minutes in a big shop selling clothes and shoes. I preferred to find souvenirs, many unique souvenirs we could find here, most of them made from woods. Most of the shops didn't accept card, but they didn't mind accepting Euro.
Decided to have lunch at Pizza restaurant, we could get extra bonus using the toilet, it's very clean and auto sensor implemented for the lighting. While waiting for the pizza, it's raining very hard, lucky that we had taken many pictures and got a chance to explore the city. We had to move our chairs to avoid getting wet, the pizza was very delicious & crispy. After finishing lunch, God was kind enough, the rain stopped so we could go back to our bus.
Our bus parked near to The Museum of the Slovak National Uprising (SNP). An architecturally unusual building built in 1969, located in the middle of a park that includes an open-air museum of heavy military equipment. It's quite satisfying visited the nice town on the long way to reach Krakow by bus.
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