Špania valley

Špania Dolina is a former mining settlement and today an interesting and attractive village. It is located between Veľká Fatra and the Low Tatras, 11 kilometres from Banská Bystrica. Its current name comes from the Latin word Spanatus, which means "Spanova", i.e. the valley of the lord. Since its beginnings it has had various names: Montania, Grueb, Valis, Dominorum, Herrengrund, Úrvöldi, Baňa, Španá Dolina. Many technical, architectural, religious and cultural monuments have been preserved here. Some of them have been restored and are open to the public. In the steeper slopes you can still find small houses of former miners. In the central square there are administrative buildings, especially the mining administration building. Špania Dolina became most famous in the 15th century, when the Thurzo-Fugger company exported the copper ore they mined here to several European countries. Ján Thurzo offered the town of Banská Bystrica to take over the administration of the entire mining district around the villages of Stará hora and Špania dolina. The town agreed and Thurzo started new, progressive mining, thus beginning the most famous stage of Slovak copper mining. At the end of the 15th century, the joint Thurzo-Fugger copper mining company, which was then known to everyone as 'Ungarischer Handel', was the first in the world to introduce eight-hour working hours, pensions for miners and widows, and medical care. The finances were administered by the Miners' Guild of the Corpus Christi, which still exists today as the Herrengrund miners' fraternity. Jan Thurzo began digging a new type of shaft at Španja Dolina as early as 1494, the so-called "Main" shaft, which was later renamed the "Lower" and "Ferdinand" shafts. It was used to drain the entire Špáná Dolina area. In the 17th and 18th centuries, other new tunnels and shafts began to be dug in the Španja dolina, such as the Maximilián shaft, the Maria shaft and the deepest Ludovika shaft, which reaches a depth of 440 m