History of the ‘Old Hospital’

1578

The Renaissance portal and the first known owner

Although the earliest record in historical sources dates from 1579, at the back of the house on the ground floor there is a Renaissance portal bearing the date 1578 and a coat of arms, so the house is certainly older. The coat of arms depicts a hammer and pick – the symbols of mining – and the letter J. This is probably the initial of the earliest known owner, the burgher and mine owner Ján (Johann) Kastner.

1784

The Mining Academy and Professor Jacquin

The family acquired considerable property in the town and the surrounding area. Among other things, they also ran the brewery in Vyhne. Later, however, the descendants of Ján von Krečméri fell into debt, and this also affected the fate of their palace, which, after the settlement of debts, losses and subsequent sales, came into the possession of Ignác Viktor von Geramb in 1784. At that time it already housed part of a hospital, the owner's living quarters, a lecture hall of the Mining Academy, a library, a cabinet of models, the flat of a mining councillor and the laboratory of Professor Mikuláš Jacquin.

Baron Mikuláš Jozef von Jacquin was professor of chemistry and mineralogy at the newly founded Mining Academy (the oldest institution of higher education of its kind in the world) in Banská Štiavnica – at that time the third-largest town in the Kingdom of Hungary. He was appointed on 13 June 1763 by decision of Maria Theresa. Before that, however, between 1754 and 1759, at the request of Francis Stephen of Lorraine, he led an expedition to the Caribbean and America, where he collected new plants and animals for the imperial gardens in Vienna and Schönbrunn Palace. A memorial plaque to Mikuláš Jozef von Jacquin is on the façade of the town palace, to the right of the main gate.

1800 – 1992

The hospital

Besides mining, some members of the family made their name in the military. Ján Jozef's son Ignác Viktor von Geramb served as a cavalry major. Several historical sources state that the house belonged to Major Geramb (Major Gerambische Haus). After the death of Ignác Viktor von Geramb in 1788, the town palace passed into the ownership of the town, even though he had heirs – six children with his wife Klára, née Rozenzwigová. The likely reason for the sale was debt.

From 1800 the owner was St. Lawrence's Hospital (Sankt Laurentii Spital). Until 1891 the house was also used for teaching by the Academy, and for a time the District Court with a prison was based in the front part. Later, at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, a more extensive internal reconstruction was carried out so that the building could be used exclusively as a hospital, and it was renamed St. Elizabeth's Municipal Public Hospital. After February 1948 it became the Hospital with Polyclinic. From 1949 the hospital building came under state health administration, and it continued to operate as a hospital until 1992.