Prof. Alexandra Bitušíková from Matej Bel University discusses the Banska Bystrica region's challenges, including economic disparities, population decline, and underutilised sustainable tourism potential. The region, rich in cultural heritage linked to mining, focuses on the Barbara route, a 192 km pilgrimage route showcasing mining history. The project aims to foster sustainable tourism through a hackathon for young people, engaging local communities and educational institutions. Post-project, the Barbara route Association aims to join the International Association of Santa Barbara mining routes and apply for a cultural route label from the Council of Europe to boost tourism. Volunteering activities with university staff and students are also planned.
Watch the interview below or click here >>https://youtu.be/AE-sFxlDbSs?si=zMCOCgy2E1YVe0W5<<
Transcript
Matevž Straus 0:08
Hello everyone, and welcome to a new episode in a series of talks with our project partners working on the pilots within the secret route project. My name is Mateusz, and today I have the pleasure to introduce to you Alexandra Bitushikova. Alexandra is a professor of social anthropology at the Matei Bell University from Slovakia. Alexandra, hello.
Alexandra 0:34
Hi everyone. Hello. Lovely to be here,
Matevž Straus 0:37
Alexandra, for the beginning. Can you please introduce us to the pilot to the region of Banska Bystrica and its challenges that you're working on in the Secret World project?
Alexandra 0:50
Okay, I'll try to be short. Banska Bystrica region, or self governing region, is the largest out of nine regions in Slovakia, and it is characterised by a big geographical diversity, so it has quite a lot of mountain ranges, as well as plains in the south. South of the region is home to four national nature parks and several natural reserves. So that creates quite a unique potential, natural potential for this territory.
Administratively, the region is divided into 13 districts with over 520 municipalities, including 24 towns, urban areas, accommodate about 50% of the territory. So there are also quite a lot of rural areas. And five of the region's southern districts really belong to the least developed areas in Slovakia, which highlights large regional economic disparities.
From a demographic perspective, Banska Bystrica region has one of the lowest population densities in Slovakia and has been experiencing quite a long term population decline. The region was once one of the wealthiest and most developed in the former Hungarian monarchy and more broadly in Europe, due to its extensive precious metal mining activities, historically characterised by significant social, economic and technical developments as well.
The region now faces several big challenges. It's unbalanced spatial development, marked by a decline of mainly smaller villages that are far away from urban centres, depopulation caused by outward migration and ageing of local populations, and of course, under utilisation of sustainable tourism initiatives, despite the potential that does exist there.
The Banska Bystrica region boasts the rich cultural heritage closely linked to, as I mentioned, to mining history, the key cities Banska Bystrica, Banska Chavnisa and Kremnitsa, they are really recognised as historical culture and tourism hubs, with Moscow Chavnisa being also on the World Heritage UNESCO World Heritage List. And one of the cultural assets of the region is also the Barbora route, which is 192 kilometres cultural, we can call it pilgrimage route, showcasing the region's mining heritage, and that will be our main focus of our project
Matevž Straus 4:16
Alexandra in the SECreTour project we often mention heritage communities as a backbone of our activities. So in your case, in the case of region of Banska Bystrica, what is the heritage community that you're working with?
Alexandra 4:32
Yes, it's quite broad, the Barbara Route Association, which is the key partner, our key partner in this pilot case, they are really running this Barbara route, but on a voluntary basis. So there are quite a lot of volunteers there. And the mining sites along this route, there are many of them with key 29 stops, but many more culture and natural monuments. They are in ownership of various entities, which includes, of course, private individuals, legal entities, nonprofit organisations, the church is an important partner there and various public institutions. Despite the significance of these monuments, they often suffer from not very good preservation always and restoration this remains a challenge, with many falling into decay due mainly to financial and legal obstacles, but the Barbara Route Association really manages to bring together various partners which can really create this heritage community.
These are mainly local governments, municipalities, which are the partners and local entrepreneurs, businessmen, tourism organisations in the whole area, the church. As I mentioned, there are several mining associations, mining societies and non-government organisations which can be involved, of course, museums, art galleries, schools, universities, individual members and, of course, most important local communities which need to be involved in all these developments, also of the Barbara Route. So this is the basis of our quite strong heritage community. And very, very broad one,
Matevž Straus 6:50
yeah, indeed, very broad. So what are your activities? What? What will you do, in that case, in the pilot?
Alexandra 6:58
Within the project, as I mentioned, the focus is our Barbara route, culture pilgrimage route, which connects significant mining sites and serves as a perfect channel for showcasing the region's tangible but also intangible and industrial heritage. It highlights the natural beauty and significance of these pressure metals, which was mainly gold, silver and copper mining in mountains of central Slovakia. So the aim of the project is really to support this, let's say, call it the renaissance of mining related culture heritage in central Slovakia by creating a broad business model for the Barbara route, strengthening the development of the mining heritage community, as well as fostering the growth of fair, creative and sustainable tourism in the region which is very important.
To prepare this business model, we organise, we will organise this year a hackathon for the development of new products, new services, apps, applications and games related to mining heritage that will foster may foster social inclusion and engagement, respect for the needs of local communities. Of course, acknowledging the importance of heritage protection, but also taking into account the capacity of the region of these minor villages and small towns along the Barbara Route.
The hackathon will aim at engaging mainly young people under 30 years, and we will organise it with our region's development agency. They have quite a lot of experience in this, and they run similar initiatives, innovative lab, show your talent, etc. The most promising outcomes of the hackathon will be further supported by the region's innovative schemes, which we hope that it will be also an opportunity to create some maybe new job opportunities and fostering some development of some creative tourism activities and industries, and the pilot will really foster collaboration between cultural heritage tourism and also education stakeholders. I did not mention that yet. Because we want to involve and we already started with that. Also our schools. We have one primary school in Banska Bystrica that tries to focus in various activities on mining history of the region. So we are working with them. And also we try to involve university students in this. So we hope that this all together can bring some new initiatives or impulses into the development of sustainable, fair and creative tourism in the in the area
Matevž Straus 10:40
Alexandra. We, all of us who work in different projects, we understand that the activities or the ambition never stops with the end of the project. So yes, beyond the end of the SECreTour project, what is your ambition? What is your vision for the region?
Alexandra 10:59
Yes, we are happy that we started this or this collaboration with this Barbara Route Association, because we already, our Rector and the head of the association, signed the memorandum of understanding, and we plan to collaborate further after the SECreTour project. What's quite I would say most important in the future, in addition to these educational activities with our students, which we want to continue in so it's the Barbara Route Association became a member of the International Association of Santa Barbara mining routes. There are several, including one in Slovenia, where you are from. And we try really to altogether. And our partners, we the partners from Matej Bel University, cooperate very closely with the Association on one task, which is that this association, international association called MINES B, wants to apply for a proposal in Council of Europe to be awarded a cultural route. Our ambition is to get this label, which would definitely strengthen the importance of mining routes and mining heritage in Europe, and thus also attract more tourists and pilgrims, we can say, so that's probably our biggest ambition. Now that will still take quite some time. We want to submit the proposal next year, and we will see how it will go, but definitely our collaboration with the Barbara Route Association will continue, because we also now plan to organise various volunteering activities with university staff, people and university students that could help to keep the Barbara route, you know, not only alive, but also nice, because it needs quite a lot of gardening work every year. So that's also what we what we plan to do as a community activity or community contribution, as as we academics and students can can do also
Matevž Straus 13:46
Alexandra, thank you for this insight into your work. Thank you for familiarise us with your activities. Of course, we will follow up on your work. I wish you all the best in the pilot in the forthcoming months and see you soon.
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For more information on the Slovakian pilot see here https://secretourproject.eu/pilots/mining-cultural-heritage-and-heritage-communities.
For an insight into some of Professor Bitušíková's social anthropolgy practice see here on her work against neo-Nazi organisations in Slovakia https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/ng-interactive/2025/apr/11/in-slovakia-our-grassroots-movement-helped-oust-a-neo-nazi-we-can-do-it-again
