Ľubietová (; ) is a village in central

Slovakia Slovakia, officially the Slovak Republic, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is bordered by Poland to the north, Ukraine to the east, Hungary to the south, Austria to the west, and the Czech Republic to the northwest. Slovakia's m ...

. Originally an ancient mining town, it is known for precious minerals.

Geography

Ľubietová is part of the

Banská Bystrica District Banská Bystrica District () is a district in the Banská Bystrica Region of central Slovakia. Until 1918, the area belonged to the county of Zvolen within the Kingdom of Hungary The Kingdom of Hungary was a monarchy in Central Europe that ...

in the

Banská Bystrica Region The Banská Bystrica Region (, ; , ) is one of the eight regions of Slovakia. It is the largest of the eight regions by area, and has a lower population density than any other region. The Banská Bystrica Region was established in 1923; its bord ...

. It is situated 25 km east from the town of

Banská Bystrica Banská Bystrica (, also known by other #Etymology, alternative names) is a city in central Slovakia, located on the Hron River in a long and wide valley encircled by the mountain chains of the Low Tatras, the Greater Fatra, Veľká Fatra, and t ...

. It lies at an altitude of 491 metres and covers an area of 61 km². The geographic center of Slovakia, the Hrb mountain, is located near the village.

History

Thanks to abundant deposits of

copper Copper is a chemical element; it has symbol Cu (from Latin ) and atomic number 29. It is a soft, malleable, and ductile metal with very high thermal and electrical conductivity. A freshly exposed surface of pure copper has a pinkish-orang ...

and less rich deposits of

iron Iron is a chemical element; it has symbol Fe () and atomic number 26. It is a metal that belongs to the first transition series and group 8 of the periodic table. It is, by mass, the most common element on Earth, forming much of Earth's o ...

ore, Ľubietová became soon an important center of medieval

mining Mining is the Resource extraction, extraction of valuable geological materials and minerals from the surface of the Earth. Mining is required to obtain most materials that cannot be grown through agriculture, agricultural processes, or feasib ...

industry. It was granted the status of a royal town in 1379 by

Louis the Great Louis I, also Louis the Great (; ; ) or Louis the Hungarian (; 5 March 132610 September 1382), was King of Hungary and Croatia from 1342 and King of Poland from 1370. He was the first child of Charles I of Hungary and his wife, Elizabeth of P ...

and

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany, the country of the Germans and German things **Germania (Roman era) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizenship in Germany, see also Ge ...

miners settled here. As one of the most important centers of Protestant Reformation in the country, the town created the Protestant "League of Seven Mining Towns" together with

Banská Belá Banská Belá (; ) is a village and municipality in the Banská Štiavnica District, in the Banská Bystrica Region of central Slovakia. It has a population of 1,234. Names and etymology The settlement got its name after the creek ''Biela'' (1228 ...

, Banská Bystrica,

Banská Štiavnica Banská Štiavnica (; ; , ) is a town in central Slovakia, in the middle of an immense caldera created by the collapse of an ancient volcano. For its size, the caldera is known as the Štiavnica Mountains. Banská Štiavnica has a population of ...

Kremnica Kremnica (; , ) is a town in central Slovakia. It has around 5,300 inhabitants. The well-preserved medieval town built above important gold mines is the site of the oldest still-working mint in the world. Name The name is derived from Slovak '' ...

Nová Baňa Nová Baňa (; ) is a town in the west of central Slovakia and the largest town of the Žarnovica District, located in the Banská Bystrica Region. Etymology The original name of Nová Baňa was Štiavnica - derived from the still existing spring ...

, and

Pukanec Pukanec ( / ''Puk(k)an(t)z'', ; ) is a village and municipality (historical town) in the Levice District in the Nitra Region of southern Slovakia. Etymology The name is probably derived from a personal name Baka, Bak, Bukan/Pukan or potentially ...

. In 1692, the first modern

blast furnace A blast furnace is a type of metallurgical furnace used for smelting to produce industrial metals, generally pig iron, but also others such as lead or copper. ''Blast'' refers to the combustion air being supplied above atmospheric pressure. In a ...

in the

Kingdom of Hungary The Kingdom of Hungary was a monarchy in Central Europe that existed for nearly a millennium, from 1000 to 1946 and was a key part of the Habsburg monarchy from 1526-1918. The Principality of Hungary emerged as a Christian kingdom upon the Coro ...

was built in Ľubietová. Due to the decline of the mining industry in the 18th century, the settlement lost its urban character and became a village.

Minerals

Ľubietová is famous for precious

mineral In geology and mineralogy, a mineral or mineral species is, broadly speaking, a solid substance with a fairly well-defined chemical composition and a specific crystal structure that occurs naturally in pure form.John P. Rafferty, ed. (2011): Mi ...

s that can be found inside the ancient mines. For example, Libethenite was discovered there in 1823 and is named after the

name of the village (''Libethen''). Euchroite was also described for the first time in Ľubietová. The list of interesting minerals, mostly created by weathering of copper ores, also includes

azurite Azurite or '' Azure spar'Krivovichev V. G.'' Mineralogical glossary. Scientific editor A. G. Bulakh. — St.Petersburg: St.Petersburg Univ. Publ. House. 2009. — 556 p. — ISBN 978-5-288-04863-0. ''(in Russian)'' is a soft, deep-blue copp ...

and

malachite Malachite () is a copper Carbonate mineral, carbonate hydroxide mineral, with the chemical formula, formula Basic copper carbonate, Cu2CO3(OH)2. This opaque, green-banded mineral crystallizes in the monoclinic crystal system, and most often for ...

Population

In 2013, Ľubietová had a population of 1160 inhabitants. According to the 2001

census A census (from Latin ''censere'', 'to assess') is the procedure of systematically acquiring, recording, and calculating population information about the members of a given Statistical population, population, usually displayed in the form of stati ...

, 98.5% of inhabitants were

Slovaks The Slovaks ( (historical Sloveni ), singular: ''Slovák'' (historical: ''Sloven'' ), feminine: ''Slovenka'' , plural: ''Slovenky'') are a West Slavic ethnic group and nation native to Slovakia who share a common ancestry, culture, history ...

. The religious makeup was 60.2%

Lutherans Lutheranism is a major branch of Protestantism that emerged under the work of Martin Luther, the 16th-century German friar and reformer whose efforts to reform the theology and practices of the Catholic Church launched the Reformation in 15 ...

, 27%

Roman Catholics The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics worldwide as of 2025. It is among the world's oldest and largest international institut ...

, and 8.2% with no religious affiliation.http://www.statistics.sk/mosmis/eng/run.html Municipal Statistics from the Statistical Office of the Slovak republic

Famous people

Vavrinec Dunajský Vavrinec Dunajský (born 15 July 1784 in Ľubietová, died 15 February 1833 in Budapest) was a Slovak sculptor. He is most famous for his work called the statue of Corgoň at The Canon House in Nitra. Vavrinec Dunajský also built the main alt ...

, sculptor

External links

Municipality of Ľubietová

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lubietova Villages and municipalities in Banská Bystrica District Mining communities in the Slovak Republic