Pukanz, also known as Pukkanz until the 20th century

Slovak: Pukanec

Hungarian: Bakabánya; Latin: Terra Banensium

The village was first mentioned in 1075 as ‘Villa Baka’. It belonged to the Baka family (= infantryman) of the Hont-Pázmány lineage. In Slovak, the name is transcribed as “Bukan” or “Pukan” (a “Pukanec”, in turn, is a member of the Baka noble family).

From 1290 onwards, the Hungarian name Bakabánya (bánya = mine), which is still in use for Pukanz today, became established. Over the centuries, numerous other names have been recorded, including Nemeth Baka (1310), Backabanya (1321), Pukano (1331), Bakamya (1352), Pwkancz (1492), Bwka Banya (1496), Nemetbacka or Backabanya (1512) and Pukanecz (1773), amongst others.

48° 21′ north latitude, 18° 43′ east longitude, 354 m above mean sea level.

Pukanz lies at the foot of the Schemnitzer Mountains, which form part of the Western Carpathians and are part of the Slovak Low Mountains.

Poiplie, a region along the Eipel (Slovak: Ipeľ, Hungarian: Ipoly), the river forming the Slovak-Hungarian border; the historical region of Hont (Slovak: Hont, Hungarian: Hont[h]).

Slovakia. Pukanz is a municipality in the district of Lewenz (Slovak: Levice; Hungarian: Léva). At regional level, it belongs to the administrative region of Neutra (Slovak: Nitra; Hungarian: Nyitra).

In 1323, Pukanz was granted town privileges by the Hungarian King Charles I Robert (1288–1342); in 1345, the town was elevated to the status of a Royal Free Town. Mining in the town and the surrounding area focused on the extraction of gold and silver.

At the beginning of the 14th century, the first German settlers arrived in the region. The place name Nemethbaka (= Deutschen-Baka) for Pukanz, attested since 1310, is a significant indication that there was a strong German presence there. The town experienced its heyday in the 15th century.

Pukanz, together with Königsberg/Nová Baňa, Schemnitz/Banská Štiavnica,Neusohl/Banská Bystrica, Kremnitz/Kremnica, Libethen/Ľubietová and Dilln/Banská Belá, to the League of the Seven Free Mining Towns in what was then Upper Hungary. Between 1424 and 1548, the town, like other mining towns, belonged to the appanage of the Hungarian queens.

In 1548, Pukanz was granted numerous privileges by Ferdinand I (1503–1564), including the right to exercise its own capital jurisdiction. From 1564 onwards, the town was constantly under attack from the Ottomans, but did not fall into their hands until 1640. In 1664, the Ottomans set Pukanz alight, almost completely destroying the town. In 1876, Pukanz was downgraded from a Royal Free Town to a town with an organised municipal council.

Pukanz has a local council with a mayor and a council of representatives.

In 1880, Pukanz had a total population of 3,222; in 1930, the figure was 3,037; in 2001, it had fallen to 2,155; and on 31 December 2011, it stood at 1,984. By the end of the 19th century, the population of German descent in Pukanz had become virtually insignificant. Between 1880 and 1910, their share of the population fell from 0.5 to 0.1 per cent. This percentage remained constant until the 2001 census. Since the end of the 19th century, Slovaks have made up the largest proportion of the population. Since then, they have accounted for an average of 95 per cent of Pukanz’s inhabitants; only in 1900 did their share of the population fall briefly to 88.8 per cent.^[1]

During the 18th and 19th centuries, the mining industry went into decline. By 1774, only one gold mine remained in operation. From 1823 onwards, mining in Pukanz was carried out on an industrial scale. The last recorded closure of a mine dates from 1842; in 1891, mining in Pukanz ceased for good. Today, the production of ceramics, alongside catering for day trippers, is the town’s main source of income.

In 1433, the Hussites advanced as far as Pukanz. The Hungarian Queen Mary (1505–1558), whose appanage included Pukanz, was very open-minded towards Humanism and tolerated the spread of the Reformation in the mining towns. In 1559, Ulrich Kammerherr, the vicar of Schemnitz, drew up the Confessio Heptapolitana for the League of the Seven Free Mining Towns on the basis of the Augsburg Confession. This was confirmed by Emperor Ferdinand I and the Archbishop of Gran/Esztergom, Miklós Oláh (1493–1568). However, Péter Pázmány (1570–1637), who became Archbishop of Gran in 1616, systematically suppressed the Reformation in the mining towns as well. Since then, the population of Pukanz has been predominantly Catholic. In the 2001 census, 63.1 per cent of the inhabitants identified as Roman Catholic and 20.1 per cent as Protestant. 14.2 per cent did not declare a religious affiliation.^[2]

The most important cultural institution in Pukanz is the Ján Frank Pottery Museum, which opened in 2007. Visitors can learn about the history and present-day state of ceramics in Pukanz and the surrounding area.

The Protestant theologian Georg Petermann (1710–1792) was born in Pukanz. The Slovak educationalist Ľudovít Bakoš (1919–1974) also came from Pukanz.

The memory of the glory days of mining in Pukanz is kept alive primarily in Hungary. As the town lies close to the Slovak-Hungarian border, day trips to the Church of St Nicholas have been a compulsory part of the curriculum for many schools in northern Hungary for several years now. Literature on the development of Pukanz over the centuries is available mainly in Hungarian.

• Gábor Máté: A historical and ethnographic study of the ethnic composition of the mining towns of Lower Hungary. In: Földrajzi Értesítő 2007 (56), pp. 181–204.
• Jörg Meier, Ilpo Tapani Piirainen, Klaus-Peter Wegera (eds.): German-language manuscripts in Slovak archives. From the Middle Ages to the Early Modern Period. Vol. 2: Central Slovakia. Edited by Mikuláš Čelko. Berlin et al. 2009. URL: books.google.de/books?id=5s54HNGFMSQC&pg=RA1-PA592&lpg=RA1-PA592&dq=Pukantz&source=bl&ots=T42Gx64n4x&sig=PSdK9WId3oQWMRt0KVhhR0_Pppk&hl=en&sa=X&ei=UhDnULHCKuGK4ATTg4HgBw&ved=0CFYQ6AEwBw#v=onepage&q=Pukantz&f=false (accessed 11 February 2013).
• Günther Freiherr von Probszt: The Mining Towns of Lower Hungary. Their Development and Economic Significance up to the Transfer to the House of Habsburg (1546). Munich 1966.

• Johann David: Continuation of the Corpus Juris and System of Metallurgical Matters. Or an Expansion of the Newly Compiled Mining Book, Including the Mining Regulations of the Crown of Hungary, and the Explanations of Two Ancient Mining Regulations of the Seven Free Royal Mining Towns, I. Cremnitz, and Königsberg; II. Schemnitz, Neusohl, Buggantz, Dülln, and Libeten: together with a preface on the usefulness of mining operations, and on the means by which they may be established and brought into good working order. Frankfurt am Main 1703.
• Caspar Stainhofer: Mining Regulations for the Free Royal Mining Towns in the Crown of Hungary, namely Crembnitz, Schembnitz, Neuensoll, Buggans, Königsberg, Düllen and Libeten: together with other surrounding gold, silver, copper and other metal mining works incorporated into the said Crown of Hungary. Vienna 1571.

• www.e-obce.sk/obec/pukanec/2-historia.html (multilingual page on historical names for Pukanz)
• www.pukanec.sk/kostol-svateho-mikulasa.phtml?id3=73987 (page about the Church of St Nicholas in Pukanz with images in Slovak)
• www.landesmuseum.at/pdf_frei_remote/JbGeolReichsanst_016_0355-0417.pdf (Report on ‘The south-western end of the Schemnitz-Kremnica tacheometric survey’ by Ferdinand Freiherr von Andrian)

[1] See the extensive tables in Gábor Máté: A historical and geographical study of the ethnic composition of the mining towns of Lower Hungary [A historical and ethnographic study of the ethnic composition of the mining towns of Lower Hungary] In: Földrajzi Értesítő 2007 (56), pp. 181 ff., in particular pp. 193 and 197.

[2] Statistical Office of the Slovak Republic, sodb.infostat.sk/sodb/sk-text/2001/data118.aspx?u=502693&okr=420402.

[3] Information about the church on the town’s official website: www.pukanec.sk/kostol-svateho-mikulasa.phtml?id3=73987 (accessed 26 October 2015).

Karin Rogalska: Pukanz/Pukanec/Bakabánya. In: Online Encyclopaedia on the Culture and History of Germans in Eastern Europe, 2013. URL: ome-lexikon.uni-oldenburg.de/orte/p/pukanz/pukanec/bakabanya (as at 26 February 2021).