The Calvary Mount of Banská Štiavnica

The Calvary Mount of Banská Štiavnica is the most important of Slovakia and it is one of the largest and artistically most significant of all of Europe. In 1993, the Calvary Mount was included by the UNESCO in its World Heritage List, together with the historical city of Banská Štiavnica and the technical monuments in its vicinity.Since the Middle Ages, the mining of precious metals, especially silver has had a key role in the history of Banská Štiavnica. Concomitant with an extraordinary development of mining science and techniques, the city, towards the end of the 18th century, lived its “golden period” also from an artistic and intellectual standpoint.

Thanks to the influence of the imperial court in Vienna, particularly following the rise to the throne of Marie Therese (1740-1780), the desire spread to manifest devotion in a new way, that is, to give material expression to the feelings of gratitude for the blessings received. It was with this spirit that between 1744 and 1751, on the initiative of the Jesuit priest Franz Perger, the Calvary Mount of Banská Štiavnica was built on the hill of Scharffenberg. The architecture of the devotional complex is in harmony with the spirit of Mitteleuropean baroque, making use also, on a smaller scale, of the Italian style that can be noted, and in the beauty of the harmonious shapes of the ornamental sculptures.The Calvary Mount is made up of twenty-four stations, symmetrically arranged along the upward path; they depict the dolorous life of Jesus Christ and of the Virgin Mary. The main feature of this devotional complex is the upper church with two towers; it has a single ellipsoidal nave with prismatic lateral towers.
The decorative works inside the church are principally the work of the painter Anton Schmidt and of the workshop of the sculptor Dionys Stanetti.