Krupina is a town in southern central Slovakia, part of the Banská Bystrica Region and the seat of the Krupina district. It has approximately 8,000 inhabitants and lies at an elevation of about 280 metres on the Zvolen–Šahy route, on the alluvial plain of the Krupinica river at the border of the Štiavnické vrchy mountains and the Krupinská planina plateau.
Krupina and Trnava are the oldest cities in Slovakia, both granted city rights in 1238. Archaeological finds indicate settlement in the New Stone Age, with copper and bronze items, Urnfield culture remains and Lusatian culture ceramics and cremation graves; the oldest written reference to the area is a 1135 deed by King Béla II delimiting property of the nearby Bzovík monastery. During the Turkish Wars the town served as a protective stronghold for central Slovak mining towns. It is the birthplace of the poet Andrej Sládkovič and the writer Elena Maróthy-Šoltésová.
Among its monuments are the Roman Catholic Church of the Birth of the Virgin Mary, a Roman triple-nave basilica built by German colonists in the early 13th century, and the Holy Trinity plague column on the main square, commissioned in the mid-18th century from the sculptor Dionýz Ignác Staneti of Kremnica. The Vartovka watchtower, built around 1564 during the Ottoman wars, is the only watchtower in Slovakia preserved in pristine condition. The town's history is documented in the exposition of the Andrej Sládkovič Museum.