Informační centrum Banská Bystrica
Námestie SNP 1, 974 01 Banská Bystrica, Slovensko
A saying from the middle ages says: “Golden Augsburg rests on ‘coppery’ Neusohl”. The rise of the Fugger’s copper empire began in 1494 with the help of a mining engineer from Krakow, Johannes Thurzo, in the heart of modern day central Slovakia, in Banská Bystrica (Neusohl). Thurzo brought with him his contacts with the Hungarian royal court, technical knowledge and an innovative vertical mining technique into the process of mining the silver-containing copper ore. The Fuggers brought their considerable capital. The copper trade, which was dominated by the mining companies of the Fuggers in Europe, made both families rich. The Fuggers were the leading mining company in Neusohl from 1496 until 1546, the Thurzo family left the corporation in 1526.