County House - architecturally one of the rarest and most beautiful buildings of the former Upper Hungary

The county house at Lazovná street no. 9 was created in the years 1764-1768 by the reconstruction of two older Renaissance burgher houses (Benicky family and the Ponerova widow), which were damaged by an extensive fire in 1761. Several Renaissance vaults on the ground floor and in the basement of the current building have been preserved from the older constructions of the houses. The Baroque reconstruction significantly changed the original layout and a magnificent baroque three-winged building with an enclosed courtyard sprang up. In the baroque construction phase, a staircase was created with a wrought-iron railing that is still preserved today, which is decorated with a volute motif and acanthus leaves and is an important dominant feature of the building. The staircase area was closed with a stone portal and a forged two-wing lattice.

The meeting hall of the County House on the floor of the eastern wing, facing Lazovná street - palatium, was decorated with a fresco with painted illusory architecture. In past centuries, performances by important figures of Slovak political and cultural life were heard in it, e.g. Ľudovít Štúr, Janek Kalinčiak, Janek Francisci and Božena Němcová. Dominik Skutecký - one of the most important painters of the last third of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century - presented his works to the public here. Currently, the hall is used for various cultural and representative events.

Another interesting thing is that the County House also included prison cells and many Slovak nationals also found an involuntary temporary home in the underground spaces of this building. According to archival records, a chapel was also built in the County Hall in the second half of the 18th century, which - like the late Baroque facade of the building - has not been preserved. The central motif of the current facade is the coat of arms of Zvolen County, carried by two angels, placed on the tympanum.

The monumentality of the Baroque reconstruction of the County House testifies to the importance of the building within the city and region from the second half of the 19th century to the present day. At the end of the 19th century, the "capital" house had a spectacular effect and was one of the architecturally rarest and most beautiful buildings in the former Upper Hungary. It is included in the list of national cultural monuments of Slovakia.

In the sense of the regulation of the government of Czechoslovakia from 1922, Zvolen County with the Upper Banská Bystrica District was replaced by the territorially largest Pohron County with its headquarters in Zvolen. The District Office in Banská Bystrica was located in the County House, in the years 1939-1949 the building was used by the Jesuits, who in 1941 established the Theological Institute of St. Aloysius. Later, various businesses and institutions were located here. The building was abandoned and was given to the library in 1967.

In the years 1969-1979, an extensive reconstruction of the building took place for the purposes of the library, during which the atrium was also roofed. It still has a unique technical solution for the interior drainage of rainwater from the roof. In 1994, the roof reconstruction with the use of attic spaces began, which was carried out in two stages due to the complexity of the construction and was only completed in the spring of 2005. This created spaces for the multifunctional use of the County house.

Currently, the County House building houses the State Science Library, the Literary and Music Museum, and the Attic Gallery.​