On 8 March 1376 King Louis I allowed a settler named Kricker, from the mining town of Kremnica over the hills, to found a village on a wooded site the charter calls Krásny les — the beautiful forest. About two hundred German families came with him, cleared the trees and farmed what was left; the place took his name, Krickerhau, Kricker's clearing, and kept it until 1945. Hungarian documents later called it Nyitrabánya and Slovaks called it Handlová, so the town carried three names at once, which was completely ordinary in this kingdom. The town also cites an earlier mention of the locality in 1254, but the settlement whose outline you can still walk begins with the charter of 1376.8. marca 1376 dovolil kráľ Ľudovít I. osadníkovi menom Kricker z banskej Kremnice založiť na zalesnenom mieste, ktoré listina nazýva Krásny les, novú dedinu. Prišlo s ním asi dvesto nemeckých rodín, les vyklčovali a zvyšok obrábali; osada dostala jeho meno — Krickerhau, Krickerova čistina — a nosila ho až do roku 1945. Uhorské listiny ju neskôr volali Nyitrabánya a Slováci Handlová, takže mesto malo naraz tri mená, čo bolo v tomto kráľovstve úplne bežné. Mesto uvádza aj staršiu zmienku o lokalite z roku 1254, no sídlo, ktorého pôdorys tu vidno dodnes, sa začína listinou z roku 1376.
