Kremnica

We in Slovakia are on Easter break starting today. As you can tell by the fact that I'm writing a blog, I've not gone abroad anywhere. This is because I procrastinatoriously failed to buy plane tickets somewhere before they got too expensive. So while I'm not in France, as I'd hoped to be, I do have the opportunity to chip away at my list of places I still have to see before I leave.

Today I went to Kremnica. This town is most famous for having something like the oldest continuously-operated mint in the world. The town itself was granted a charter in 1328. The old part has double fortifications: one wall around the square and the mint, and another around the castle complex on a hill.

The square is grassy, rather than paved, and the weird thing about it, aside from the fact that it's currently being dug up, is that it's tilted. The highest point is the corner nearest the castle. There's also a nice big plague column in the square. The mint is on one corner, and two other museums are on the square as well.

As I said before, it's a castle complex, not one castle building. To be honest, it's not all that castley. The most important part of the complex is the cathedral...which is closed for renovation. It's supposed to be really impressive inside. In the complex you can also go in (from left to right below) the bell tower, the cathedral tower, the north tower with an exhibit on archaelogical finds and the defense of the castle, and the pink tower, which incorporates the oldest building there, a Romanesque chapel and ossuary.

When the guide was telling me about the cathedral tower, she said it was a strenuous climb of 127 steps, at which I thought that 127 wasn't too bad. The sign outside the tower itself says, among other things, "Going up the 127 winding stairs is pretentious." I laughed, and then started up, and then agreed, as long as your definition of pretentious is "terrifying as hell." Why do I keep going up these towers with the really steep, really narrow steps? I don't like being afraid; but I always go. When I was almost at the top, I heard people coming down, so I pulled over into a little alcove to let them go by, and these two workers literally ran down the stairs, as if to mock me.

The town museum is quite good. It includes exhibits on the history and guilds of the city, the mining process, medals and medallions, and, my favorite part, money in the area and Slovakia in general, from the earliest Celtic coins to the euro. I recommend visiting this museum. You might have to hang out for a while to get in, though, depending on whether the one guide is giving a tour or is available to sell you a ticket.

It was a good one-day trip (I left just after 6 this morning and got back just after 6 this evening, for the record). Maybe if I'd gone earlier in my Slovakia time I would've been more wowed by Kremnica, or maybe if I'd been able to go in the cathedral, but it was still a pleasant day and I enjoyed it.