The Slovak Mining Museum was formed in 1964 through a fusion of the Municipal Museum founded in 1900, with the State Mining Museum of Dionýz Štúr set up in 1927. Since its beginnings it builds up mineral-deposit, mining-technology, ethnography, art history, archaeology and numismatic funds and collections of general history. It specializes in documenting the history of mining industry in the Slovak Republic. It belongs to the museum system of an all-Slovakian competence and within the framework of region it also documents the history of Banská Štiavnica and its environs. The central building is the Kammerhof - a national cultural monument, the largest building complex in the town, whose origin reaches back to the 13th century. It is the former seat of the socalled Chamber Counts and mining board of management.