Pukanec

In the past, Pukanec belonged to the royal mining towns, whose privilege was the right to defend itself. The town was probably fenced in the Hussite wars with a wooden palisade and log wall, but the so-called Pukan castle - the church was fenced with a stone wall. The defensive significance of the walls increased especially in times of Turkish danger. In Pukanec, however, the wall was already in poor condition at that time and for the last time it protected the town during the invasion of the Turks in 1568. The following year, it collapsed. The construction of the new wooden fence took place between 1569 and 1578.

It was not until the Regional Assembly in 1578 that it decided to build a fortification with brick walls. They built the fortifications from stone and brick. It was probably never completed, because during the great Turkish disasters in 1640 and 1664, a wooden palisade is also mentioned. However, it is possible and quite probable (according to Ján Králik, a Pukan archivist), that only the inner city and the wooden palisade of the suburbs were fortified with a stone wall. The floor plan of the fortification was a rectangle with two corners and one central bastion on the shorter side of the floor plan. The Turks ravaged Pukanec several times and occupied it for a time in 1664. Later, after mining fell, Pukanec became an agricultural and craft town in the 18th century.

Two city gates were situated in the walls in the north-south direction. The upper gate at Klopačka was last mentioned in 1799. The lower one stood in the space between today's post office and the pharmacy. It was demolished without the permission of the lords by the town notary Július Ciglan in 1899. In addition to them, there were also two gates in the walls - a pedestrian fort, towards the vineyards and Gágor.

Parish Church of St. Nicholas was the core of the town castle, similar to the town castle in Kremnica. Its premises were entered through a bridge from the square through a four-storey bastion, which later served as the town hall. It stood in the area of today's church gate (Church of St. Nicholas).