The Castle Area

The altar of St.Barbara by Master Pavol of Levoca in the church of the Virgin Mary.
The Church of the Assumption of Virgin Mary was built in the 13th century in the Romanesque style. The most famous chapel is dedicated to St. Barbora, the patroness of miners. The altar comes from the workshop of Master Paul of Levoca. The console figures, Gothic triptych from the 15th century, metal baptistry from 1475, ornamental sculptures of the Mount of Olives and of St. Andrew, the relief of the Annunciation, the picture by J. L. Kracker and the decoration of the vaults by J. Schmidt are also precious.

The Church of the Holy Cross is younger. The nave and hall were annexed to the original chapel of St. Michael and filled the space between it and Mathias House. At the main altar there are ornamental sculptures of the Virgin Mary and Magdalene by Vavrinec Dunajsky.

The Mathias House is a five-storey late-Gothic building with a Gothic portal and stone console balcony. On the Facade are the coat-of-arms of the king Mathias and the town and the year - 1479.

Only a part of the walls and the Writer's, Miner's and Parish Bastions have been preserved from the original fortresses of the castle area. A barbican with a tower [photo] and a drawbridge over a moat, once an entrance to the castle, was added to the fortification. The tower has three bells. The biggest of them weighs 99 quintals.

The Old Town Hall comes from the year 1500 and contains Gothic, Renaissance and Baroque elements. At present it houses the exhibition halls of the gallery. The column of the Virgin Mary was moved from the square of the Slovak National Uprising to the castle area in the second half of the 60s and in the 1993 it was returned back.

The view from the square to the Barbican [photo].

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