In October 1495, a contract was concluded between the Hungarian Chamber of Mines, the Cracow burgher Ján Thurz, and the Augsburg banker Jacob Fugger for the Banskobystrica mining enterprise. Despite the eventual loss of control by its founders, the company and its associated factories flourished for nearly 500 years, enhancing the reputation not only of the enterprise but also of the city of Banská Bystrica.
The mining enterprise from Banská Bystrica was a pioneering and innovative business entity in the world at that time. The exceptional standard of management was evident not only in the production and operational processes of the company but also in the positioning and layout of each individual production facility.
The company's primary focus was on the intensive deep mining of copper and copper-silver ore. The newly established mining operations, interconnected through tunnels and shafts, set a benchmark for the era, utilizing state-of-the-art technical and technological advancements. Following the mining process, the ore underwent immediate metallurgical processing. Numerous primary and specialized smelting facilities worked in close collaboration within the company. The ore extracted from the deep underground was primarily processed near the mining site in stupas (ore crushers) and smelters. The resulting raw metal was then transported to technologically specialized smelting operations—refining smelters and leaching smelters—for further processing. These facilities produced copper raw material of varying quality, which was then refined into semi-finished and final products at a separate metallurgical factory known as hammers. The Banská Bystrica mining enterprise exclusively processed copper raw material, earning it the epithet "Copper". The copper hammer in Banská Bystrica represented the pinnacle of the company's operations at the time. Together with its associated production and residential settlement, the copper hammer exhibited signs and elements of a manufactory, indicating a direct transition to a factory-style enterprise. The establishment of a settlement directly linked to the Copper hammer production area signifies an early stage of the country's industrialization, earning it the designation of a "historical industrial area". It serves as a tangible testament to centuries-old continuity in techniques, technology, experience, and development within the copper metallurgical industry at this location. Since the 14th century, the positioning of the hammer near watercourses—the Laskomerského stream and the Bystrička river—proved highly advantageous. The energy potential of both watercourses played a crucial role not only in the long-term production development but also in the technological and spatial organization of the production area.
