Stark divisions
From a distance, Rudnany's most identifiable feature is an abandoned mineshaft and lift tower in the very centre of the valley. Most of the local inhabitants occupy nice, two-storey homes that encircle the old mine works. The town is surrounded by forests that betray a long-term proximity to industrial production. If you enter Rudnany by the main road from Spisska Nova Ves, the nearest town, the first thing you see is a Roma community living on an abandoned and derelict factory site at Zabijanec. If it happens to be summer, you might see children playing in the polluted stream that runs nearby.
Leaving Zabijanec, you encounter two-story houses and apartment blocks, beyond which is the hill that was home to the mining company administration at Patoracke-a building that looks like a bombed and gutted relic from World War Two. On the slopes surrounding the building are small huts and houses cobbled together with scrap materials. You might still be in Rudnany, but you've crossed into a different world. The line might not be visible, but the inhabitants feel the demarcation clearly enough.
Up to the beginning of the 1990s, mining and metal processing were the main sources of local employment. The sudden collapse of the industry had drastic social consequences for all inhabitants, but the minority Roma population has suffered most.
