Butcher's Bastion - part of the Banská Bystrica city fortifications

An interesting cultural monument of Banská Bystrica is an ancient bastion from the turn of the 16th and 17th centuries. It was built before 1608. The bastion was part of the city fortifications. Members of the local butcher's guild were responsible for its defence, which is why it retained the butcher's epithet.

The Butcher's Bastion is located in the area of the monument of the Slovak National Uprising. It was part of the city fortifications. There was also the Horný bridge, which connected the city with the then Hronské suburb and Horné meadows. The original wooden bridge was replaced by a concrete one in 1927. Until the end of the fifties, the Hron flowed under the bastion in its old channel. Today, there is a restaurant in the Butcher's Bastion.

The Butcher's Bastion is part of the city's fortification system, which was built over many decades, and after its completion, the walls measured more than 3,700 metres. They were fortified with eighteen bastions and five main gates. The fortification of the city castle played a key role in the construction of the fortification, but the fortification of the city core was also an autonomous part of it. The first mention of the walls around the city outside the territory of the castle area comes from the second half of the 15th century, at the end of the 16th century the entire perimeter of the city was already surrounded by walls. Today, parts of the complete original system have been preserved in several parts of the city.