The Reformation reached the Čachtice estate early and Stará Turá went over to it almost completely; the Lutheran congregation, not the landlord, became the institution that organised local life, and the town is still about two-fifths Lutheran today. At the same time families began moving out of the valley and onto the ridges above it, clearing strips of forest and building single farmsteads — the kopanice. That is why the municipality covers so much ground for its size: the compact town in the valley is a twentieth-century thing, and the scattered settlement above it is three hundred years older.Reformácia prišla na čachtické panstvo skoro a Stará Turá k nej prešla takmer celá; inštitúciou, ktorá organizovala miestny život, nebol zemepán, ale evanjelický zbor — a mesto je dodnes asi z dvoch pätín evanjelické. V tom istom čase sa rodiny začali sťahovať z doliny na chrbty nad ňou, klčovali pásy lesa a stavali samostatné usadlosti — kopanice. Preto má mesto na svoj počet obyvateľov taký veľký chotár: kompaktné mesto v doline je vec 20. storočia, roztratené osídlenie nad ním je o tristo rokov staršie.
