The burghers of Bystrice, inspired by the model of the town castle in Kremnica, fortified the area around the parish church in the last third of the 15th century and built other buildings belonging to the municipalities, the town administration and the king: the Gothic house of King Matej (also called Matej's house) was built in 1479. , town hall around 1500; Shortly before that, in 1492, the church of St. Kríža, also called the Slovak church, because mostly Slovak inhabitants used to come here, with a rich late Gothic entrance portal. The fortification consisted of a high stone wall and circular bastions. The most important part of the fortification was the entrance gate with a barbican, completed in 1512, which was entered through two gates, for carriages and for pedestrians. At that time, the parish church underwent an expensive building modification, which is still documented by a preserved oratory with a Gothic cross vault, the side chapel of St. Barbara and a late Gothic winged altar by Master Pavel of Levoča and a late Gothic bronze baptistery by Master Jodok. A typological interest is the portraits of saints, which illusively replaced the consoles under the vault in the presbytery. The interior of the church was very valuable in those times, hl. the altar was made by Master Paul of Levoča and was allegedly even more monumental than that of Levoča. However, it succumbed to a devastating fire in 1761; in 1767 it was replaced by a baroque altar with paintings by the important Austrian painter JL Kracker.