The Mining Academy (, , ), in

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 ...

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 ...

, was a technological university founded in 1735 by scientist Sámuel Mikoviny (then

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 ...

History

Its original name was Bergschule (Berg Schola), and it has had formal status as an academy since December 13, 1762, when it was established by Empress

Maria Theresa Maria Theresa (Maria Theresia Walburga Amalia Christina; 13 May 1717 – 29 November 1780) was the ruler of the Habsburg monarchy from 1740 until her death in 1780, and the only woman to hold the position suo jure, in her own right. She was the ...

in order to train specialists in silver, gold mining and

metallurgy Metallurgy is a domain of materials science and engineering that studies the physical and chemical behavior of metallic elements, their inter-metallic compounds, and their mixtures, which are known as alloys. Metallurgy encompasses both the ...

for mines in the surrounding area and the whole country. It is the world's first institution of technology or technical university with tertiary technical education. Teaching started in 1764 with the Department of chemistry and metallurgy and first 40 students, who were required to be above 18 years old, to have complete secondary education, and had one year of practical experience. Later the Department of Mathematics, Mechanics, Hydraulics and Mining engineering was established. Third Department of mining wells was settled in 1770. In 1807 Department of Forestry was organized. In 1839 Department of technical drawing and descriptive geometry started. In 1841 Department of Mineralogy, Geology and Paleontology started. In 1866 Department of Melallurgy and Testing and Department of Chemistry and Physics. In 1872 the Department of Mining and Mineral Processing and Department of Mining Surveying and Geodesy. According to

Ferenc Szabadváry Ferenc Szabadváry (1 September 1923 – 21 May 2006) was a Hungarians, Hungarian chemist and historian. From 1971 he was director at the Hungarian National Museum for Science and Technology. In 1960 he published a history of analytical chemistr ...

, the "Mining Academy at Selmecbánya ... was the cradle of chemical research in Hungary, but its reputation spread beyond the country's border and in the 18th century was one of the main scientific centers of Europe." The buildings and monuments of the Mining Academy have been preserved for their historic interest.

Courses

The course of study took three years of theoretical education, one year practice and final examination with practical test and was completely free of charge.

References

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Banská Štiavnica town article about Banícka akadémia to its 250. anniversary of foundation
{{DEFAULTSORT:Banicka akademia Research institutes in Slovakia Schools of mines