Banská Štiavnica is a town built into a volcano. A great crater, the caldera of an extinct volcano, surrounds the place, and the streets climb steeply up its inner slopes, so that the whole centre is a tumble of pastel houses, churches and castles on a hillside. Silver and gold were mined here from the Middle Ages, and in the eighteenth century the town was one of the richest in the Habsburg Empire. In 1762 the mining academy was founded, one of the first technical colleges in the world, and its graduates carried mining knowledge to many countries. UNESCO listed the town in 1993, along with its technical monuments.
The landscape is full of ingenious water engineering. Because the town sits high on a ridge, with no large river, the miners built dozens of small reservoirs, called tajchy, in the hills above to power their pumps and stamping mills. Many survive, and on a summer day some of them are used for swimming and boating. The roads around the town climb and dip through wooded hills and quiet valleys, with long bends and the occasional steep section, and they are a delight for riders who like gentle, twisting routes. Sitno, the highest peak nearby, offers a viewpoint over the whole district.
Banská Štiavnica has just over ten thousand people, so fuel, food and rooms are available, though the cobbled streets are steep and slippery in the wet. Svätý Anton, a smaller village a few kilometres off, has a handsome manor house, once the home of an aristocratic family, now a museum. The town is also famous for its traditional crafts, including pottery, wooden toys and gingerbread. Old inns serve hearty fare of dumplings, sheep cheese and smoked meats.
If you can, plan to stay overnight. The town is at its best in the evening, when the day trippers leave and the lamps come on. The stone steps, the Calvary on its hill and the little churches stand out against the sky, and in the cool air, you can hear the church bells ring across the valley. A walk through the old streets in the quiet of the night is memorable.