Abstract

Findings of coal in Slovakia are historically recorded from the earliest periods. References about its use in manufacturing are preserved from the 70s of the 17^th century. Development of Slovak coal mining began in the last decade of the 19^th century. Attempts of coal mining had been officially registered. These lists, maps, reports and documents are currently irreplaceable historical archival documents of official origin. They are an important source of knowledge, not only about the economic history of coal mining, history of science and technology but also about the environmental history of historic coal mining localities in the Slovakia.

The methodology of the work demonstrates the possibility of a methodic approach to the research works on historic mining localities in environmental history. The work provides a brief outline of the environmental history of coal mining in Slovakia focusing on the development and prosperity of coal mining and its effects on society and partially the surrounding landscape as well.

Core of the work processes the historical official legislation since the early beginnings of coal mining development in Slovakia. We are pointing out to the possibility of using the historical official legislation for the research of the environmental history of landscape in mining localities. Our research is focused on the period of the beginnings of interest in coal as an economic raw material, starting approximately in the second half of the 18^th century and ending in the mid-20^th century. The work is based upon the results of many years of systematic archival and field research. The final part of our work provides a case study of the environmental history of the historical coal mining locality Badín, in Zvolenská kotlina basin in the district of Banská Bystrica.

 

Key words: 

historic localities of coal mining, slovakia, official documents, economic, social and environmental aspects, environmental history