In the project Jakob Fugger a historical European influencer for over two years we have been searching for economical, political, medial, social and environmental footprints which had been left by the richest man in the world in our city. Sooner or later, every proper researcher will visit the archives, where the most important written sources of the history of our town and the whole Banská Bystrica region are preserved.
Students from the Erasmus+ team first learnt during a short lecture what documents are hidden in the archive’s depots, what conditions are necessary for their preservation and how researchers can get to the materials they are interested in. And then they saw for themselves why the archive is a windowless building, how many boxes can fit on the shelves of one depot, where precious treasures are hidden, and even tried how difficult it is to move over-filled shelves.
However, the greatest experience was definitely the sources that the ordinary person can’t get to and we could almost touch them, especially the original charter by which Belo IV. granted Banská Bystrica the privileges of a free royal town in 1255, but also various historical maps and incunabula – the first copies of books from the 15th century. Pupils could ask questions about anything they were interested in and the three most active ones were rewarded with a small gift at the end.
teacher (English, German) from Banská Bystrica (Slovakia)