Villages of the Banská Bystrica Region

Three countries in one regionTri krajiny v jednom kraji

The Banská Bystrica region is the largest in Slovakia by area, and it holds three quite different countries. The upper Hron and the ranges around it — the Low Tatras, the Veľká Fatra, the Starohorské vrchy and the Ore Mountains — are forest and mining ground. The middle, the Zvolen basin, is farmland, manor houses and market towns. The south, dropping away through Hont, Novohrad and Gemer towards the Ipeľ, is warm, dry, volcanic and full of vines.Banskobystrický kraj je rozlohou najväčší na Slovensku a nesie v sebe tri celkom odlišné krajiny. Horný Hron a pohoria okolo neho — Nízke Tatry, Veľká Fatra, Starohorské vrchy a Slovenské rudohorie — sú lesnatá banská zem. Stred, Zvolenská kotlina, je krajina polí, kaštieľov a trhových mestečiek. Juh, ktorý cez Hont, Novohrad a Gemer klesá k Ipľu, je teplý, suchý, vulkanický a plný viníc.

What put villages on the map here was usually not farming. Copper did, on the slopes above Banská Bystrica; iron and the charcoal that smelted it in the Ore Mountains; silver over the hill at Banská Štiavnica. When the ore ran out the people mostly stayed, and that is why several villages in this region look like nowhere else in the country — a settlement standing on its own spoil heaps, a lace trade that outlived the mine that started it, a hillside of wine cellars with not one farm among them.Tunajšie obce spravidla nepreslávilo poľnohospodárstvo. Preslávila ich meď na svahoch nad Banskou Bystricou, železo a drevené uhlie, ktoré ho tavilo, v Rudohorí, a striebro za kopcom v Banskej Štiavnici. Keď ruda došla, ľudia väčšinou zostali — a práve preto niekoľko obcí tohto kraja nevyzerá ako nič iné v krajine: osada stojaca na vlastných haldách, čipkárstvo, ktoré prežilo baňu, z ktorej vzišlo, celý svah vínnych pivníc bez jediného gazdovstva medzi nimi.

The Gothic church of St Martin at Čerín inside its walled churchyard, south of Banská BystricaGotický Kostol svätého Martina v Čeríne v ohradenom areáli južne od Banskej Bystrice

Built from what was to handPostavené z toho, čo bolo poruke

Material follows geology. Where the forest came down to the last house the walls were logs and the roof was shingle, and both were replaced as they rotted rather than conserved. Where mining money paid a mason, houses are stone under lime render and tile — small, steep-roofed, built to outlast their builders. On the volcanic ground of the south the rock is tuff, soft enough to cut with a pick and firm enough to hold a ceiling, so cellars, and in places whole rooms, went into the hillside instead of being built on top of it.Materiál sa riadi geológiou. Tam, kde les siahal po posledný dom, boli steny zrubové a strecha šindľová a jedno aj druhé sa po zhnití vymenilo, nekonzervovalo. Tam, kde na murára boli banské peniaze, sú domy z kameňa pod vápennou omietkou a pálenou krytinou — malé, so strmými strechami, postavené tak, aby prežili staviteľov. Na vulkanickom juhu je skalou tuf, mäkký na ručný čakan a pevný natoľko, aby udržal strop, takže pivnice — a miestami celé izby — vznikali v svahu namiesto toho, aby sa stavali naň.

One line of this building tradition carries a UNESCO inscription: the articular Lutheran church at Hronsek and the bell tower that stands apart from it, both of the 1720s, both of timber, raised under a law that forbade the congregation a tower and bells. A belfry standing separate from its church is a central Slovak habit rather than an accident — it turns up wherever a tower was forbidden, or where a medieval church stood inside a defensive wall that left no room for one. Covered stairways climbing to a church on a rock come out of the same practical mind.Jedna vetva tejto stavebnej tradície nesie zápis UNESCO: artikulárny evanjelický kostol v Hronseku a zvonica stojaca osve vedľa neho, obe z dvadsiatych rokov 18. storočia, obe z dreva, postavené za čias zákona, ktorý zboru zakazoval vežu aj zvony. Zvonica oddelená od kostola je na strednom Slovensku zvykom, nie náhodou — objavuje sa všade tam, kde bola veža zakázaná alebo kde stredoveký kostol stál v opevnenom areáli, v ktorom naň nezostalo miesto. Kryté schody stúpajúce ku kostolu na skale pochádzajú z toho istého praktického uvažovania.

Visiting them wellAko ich navštíviť

Almost nothing here is staffed. A village church is normally locked between services and opened by whoever holds the key; a museum house opens from spring to autumn, and outside high summer often only at weekends. Ring the village office or the parish before you set out, and treat printed opening hours as a statement of intent rather than a guarantee.Takmer nič tu nemá stálu obsluhu. Dedinský kostol býva medzi bohoslužbami zamknutý a otvorí ho ten, kto má kľúč; múzejný dom máva otvorené od jari do jesene a mimo hlavnej sezóny často len cez víkend. Pred cestou zavolajte na obecný úrad alebo na faru a otváracie hodiny berte skôr ako zámer než ako záruku.

The rest is manners. People live in these houses; a reserve of folk architecture is a street of private homes, not an exhibit, and an open cellar door usually means the owner has guests. Look from the lane, keep out of yards, ask before photographing anyone. Buses reach nearly all of these villages from Banská Bystrica, Zvolen or Krupina, and at weekends the services thin out sharply — check the journey home before you commit to the journey out.Zvyšok je slušnosť. V týchto domoch sa býva; rezervácia ľudovej architektúry je ulica súkromných domov, nie výstava, a otvorené dvere pivnice zvyčajne znamenajú, že majiteľ má hostí. Pozerajte sa z uličky, do dvorov nechoďte a pred fotografovaním ľudí sa spýtajte. Takmer do všetkých týchto obcí sa dostanete autobusom z Banskej Bystrice, zo Zvolena alebo z Krupiny, cez víkend však spojov výrazne ubúda — spiatočnú cestu si overte skôr, ako sa vyberiete na tú prvú.

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