On Saturday 3rd of October, students from Jakob-Fugger-Gymnasium Augsburg set off for Banská Bystrica. The long train journey took them right across Central Europe to central Slovakia. At the same time, the group from Cracow International School arrived by long-distance coach.
The destination was no coincidence. In the 15th and 16th centuries, Banská Bystrica was a centre of copper mining. Jakob Fugger and the Thurzo family, based in Kraków, built a joint enterprise here that sold copper from the region’s mountains all over Europe. Under the motto „Tracing resources: From Jakob Fugger into the future“, IFYC26, the second edition of the conference, set out to explore this history. The question of the week: what links mining in the age of the Fuggers with the raw materials in our smartphones?
In Banská Bystrica, the families of the students of ZŠ Moskovská 2 were waiting. They hosted the guests from Augsburg and Kraków for the whole week. After arriving, everyone went straight to their new families. The first evening was all about getting to know each other, unpacking and sharing dinner.
