The only mining place of the northern mountains attested before 1200: a charter of 1156 names the 'terra banensium', the land of the miners, here.
In 1200 it is a miners' settlement (Slav 'Štiavnica' in the valley, 'Bánya' on the hill) working silver for the king, with an older Hungarian fortified site nearby. The German miners who make it a town arrive in the 13th century, and its town status dates from 1238. The other later mining towns (Besztercebánya 1255, Körmöcbánya 1328, Gölnicbánya and Szomolnok in the Szepes mountains, Rozsnyó) are not yet founded or not attested in 1200.
Who holds it
- Name
- King Emeric
- Title
- the king (mining regalia), through the ispán of Hont
- Confidence
- medium
Lord in 1200
King Emeric: the silver belongs to the crown.
Charter
None in 1200; royal town status 1238.
Council
None pinned.
Communities
Slav and Hungarian miners; German miners only from the 13th century.
Walls and castle
An older fortified site; no town walls.
Trade and crafts
Silver mining and smelting.
Where the sources disagree
Evidence: The 1156 name is the one firm early date.
Primary sources for Hungary
Chronicles, registers, sagas and inscriptions written in or near 1200 that cover this entry. Each has its own page with editions, translations and where to read it.
- Chronicle of Alberic of Trois-Fontaines, Alberic of Trois-Fontaines (about 1227 to 1241, at the Cistercian abbey of Trois-Fontaines in Champagne). The widest net of any Latin chronicle for 1200, compiled from dozens of sources, many now lost. Read online
- The Austrian and Salzburg annals (kept in the 12th and 13th centuries, with continuations to the late 13th century). A family of monastic annals from Austria, Styria and Salzburg, printed together. Read online
- The Hypatian Chronicle (the Kievan Chronicle compiled about 1200 at the Vydubichi monastery; the Galician-Volhynian Chronicle in the 13th century). The southern record. Read online
- History of the bishops of Salona and Split, by Thomas the Archdeacon, Thomas of Split (about 1266). Written two generations later by a Split churchman born about 1200. Read online
- History of the doges of Venice (about 1229, with a continuation). The earliest surviving Venetian narrative close to the events. Read online
- The Deeds of the Hungarians, by the Anonymous Notary of King Béla, Anonymus (P. magister) (about 1200 to 1210, the date disputed). Not a record of events but a picture of the kingdom's nobility and geography as a courtier of about 1200 wished to see it: the clans and their lands, the castles and counties, the Vlachs, Cumans and other peoples of the Carpathian basin, all projected back onto the conquest. Read online
- The Book of Census of the Roman Church, Cencius Camerarius (Cencio Savelli, later Pope Honorius III) (1192, with later additions). The papal rent roll: every church, monastery, town and kingdom that owed a census to Rome in 1192, diocese by diocese, with the sums, followed by lists of papal lands and castles, the ceremonial Ordo and copies of charters. Read online
- The Registers of Pope Innocent III for 1199 to 1201, Innocent III and the papal chancery (22 February 1199 to 21 February 1201). The pope's outgoing letters for the year, in his chancery's own copy, touching nearly every realm in the atlas. Read online
4 more in the sources library for Poland, Hungary and the Adriatic.
Sources and studies
Last revised 4 November 2026. Published 4 November 2026. Suggest a correction on the OMNIA Discord.