History

Establishment and history of the Geological Institute

Since May, 1, 2000 * GEOLOGICAL INSTITUTE OF DIONYZ STUR. By the Decision No. 647/2000 – min. of the Minister of Environment SR dated April, 26, 2000 the that time Geological Survey of the Slovak Republic was renamed to State Geological Institute of Dionyz Stur.

1996 – 2000  *  GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE SLOVAK REPUBLIC
By the Decision No. 1979/45 – min. of the Minister of Environment SR dated October10, 1995, three organizations were liquidated:
– contributory organization Geological Institute of Dionýz Štúr, Bratislava,
– non-profit organization Geofond, Bratislava, established by Provision No. 168/69 of the Director of the Slovak Geological Office dated 17/04/1994.
– Slovenská geológia, š. p. Spišská Nová Ves, established by the Decision No. 22/1994 of the Minister of Environment SR dated 24/08/1994.
This Decision entered into the force by December 31,1995.
The predecessor Slovenská geológia, š. p. Spišská Nová Ves  was Geologický prieskum n. p. Turčianske Teplice, which was founded in 1958 and in 1965 it moved to Žilina.
In the year 1965 this enterprise split into two ventures, namely IGHP, n. p. Žilina with nation-wide coverage of engineering geology and hydrogeology and Geologický prieskum, n. p. Spišská New Ves with nation-wide coverage of deposit geology with geological regional centres in Spišská Nová  Ves, Žilina, Banská Bystrica, Rožňava and Košice.
In 1994, Slovenská geológia, š. p. Spišská Nová Ves at the time of its liquidation comprised also the regional centres in Banská Bystrica which were adjoined to Geological Survey of the Slovak Republic.

By the Decision No. 1979/45 – min. of the Minister of Environment SR dated October 10, 1995, Geological Survey of the Slovak Republic – contributory organization seated in Bratislava was established on 01/01/1996 by coalescence of the above three organizations.

1953 – 1995 * INSTITUTE OF DIONÝZ ŠTÚR
On 09/10/1953 a new building of the Institute on Patrónka in Mlynská dolina was handed over ceremonially and at the same time the that time Slovak Central Geological Institute was renamed to Geological Institute of Dionýz Štúr commemorating the outstanding Slovak geologist Dionýz Štúr, who in the period of 1885 – 1892 was the Director of the Imperial Geological Institute (Reichs Geologische Bundesanstalt) in Vienna. In March 1958 the Governement approved a Draft of the Governmental Decree on the organization of the state geological survey; based on it the Central Geological Office was established in Prague by 01/04/1958 serving as the state-wide geological administration. The Central Geological Office supervised also the Geological Institute of D. Štúr. Since June1, 1965, the Geological Institute of D. Štúr was set apart the Central Geological Office in Prague and became an independent institute for basic geological research in Slovakia. At the same time an autonomous Geofond was founded, which became a branch office of the Geofond in Prague. Based on the federative political structure of the former ČSSR Slovak Geological Office (SGÚ) was founded by 28/10/1968. The Geological Institute of D. Štúr was subordinated to SGÚ as an independent institute for basic geological research in Slovakia; the Geofond became an autonomous unit subordinated to SGÚ, as well. This status was in force till 31/12/1995.

1949 – 1953 * SLOVAK CENTRAL GEOLOGICAL INSTITUTE
In 1949 the State Geological Institute was renamed to Slovak Central Geological Institute. The Institute became a branch of the Central Geological Office in Prague. In 1952 Geological Fond (Geofond) was established by the Governmental Decision and in 1954 a Geofond Office in our Institute.

1940 – 1949 * STATE GEOLOGICAL INSTITUTE
A proposal to establish an independent geological research institute in Slovakia was submitted in November 1938 by Prof. D. Andrusov and Prof. J. Karvaš. The act on the State Geological Institute was approved by the Assembly on May, 15, 1940 and on June, 12 of the same year the respective Governmental Directive was issued. Prof. D. Andrusov was appointed the first director of the SGU.

Prior to the Imperial Geological Institute establishment in Vienna in 1849, the geological research in Slovakia was rather of sporadic character. After the WWI the geological research in Slovakia was organized by the State Geological Institute in Prague, with state-wide competence.

SGIDS – in brief

State Geological Institute of Dionýz Štúr, subordinated to the Ministry of Environment SR is a contributory organization which provides geological research and exploration at the territory of the Slovak Republic, creation of information system in geology as a component of the nation-wide information system, registration and evidence activities related to geological works performance, collecting, evidence and making available the geological works results carried out at the territory of the Slovak Republic, Central Geological Library performance, issuing and purchase of maps and professional geological publications.
The State Geological Institute is named after prominent geologist of the Slovak origin Dionýz Štúr.

The Headquarters of the State Geological Institute of Dionýz Štúr – in Mlynská dolina in Bratislava

DIONÝZ ŠTÚR was born in 1827 in Beckov. After completing secondary school in Modra and evangelical high school in Bratislava he started in 1844 to study natural science at the Polytechnic College in Vienna. Influenced by the lectures of outstanding mineralogist Prof. W. Haidinger and botanist Prof. S. Endlicher he devoted his efforts to natural sciences. 1847 – 1849, he studied geology and mining at the Mining and Forestry Academy in Banská Štiavnica. In 1849 Imperial Geological Institute was established in Vienna and the first director was Prof. Haidinger, who in the year 1850 invited Dionýz Štúr to work in the Institute. He carried out geological research throughout the entire Austrian-Hungarian Kingdom and he compiled the first geological map of the Monarchy. Naturally, the most important for us are those works related to Slovakia. They became a milestone for a systematic geological research of the Western Carpathians. His main publications on the Western Carpathians are the works about the catchments of the rivers Váh and Nitra, on the geology of the Upper Váh and Hron catchments and o the geology of the Spišsko-gemerské rudohorie Mts. His scientific activity covered three branches, namely geology, palaeontology and botanics. He wrote numerous extensive scientific works, which ranked him among the outstanding and world-famous scientists. He was awarded several titles and decorations; he became a member of several academies of sciences and nature science societies across Europe. In 1872, he became chief geologist at Imperial Geological Institute, in 1877 its deputy director and, finally in 1885, its director. He held this position until 1892, when he retired. He passed away on October 9, 1893 and was buried in Vienna with greatest honour.

Dionýz Štúr 1827 – 1893