It is my great pleasure and honour to invite you to the 15th Club Symposium on Portal Hypertension (SPH-C), which will take place at the Old Castle, June 26–27, 2026, in Banská Štiavnica, Slovakia (www.banskastiavnica.sk).

Conceived in 2007 as a singularity refracting the Baveno front wave towards the newly emerging, velvety and avid hepatology community of Central Europe, SPH has not ceased emitting the signal: Meet again. Albeit the times they are a-changin’, with Central European velvet grown discernibly thinner and the ardour of convergence more distant, the vibe of excellent hepatology translated live into our real life has remained the same—it feels good.

We also believe, with Simone Weil, that the greatest gift of all is attention, and we hope the club atmosphere will amplify this in our shared return to the common roots of human beings and their diseases, of our role as physicians, and of meaning amidst the world’s decline in humanity.

We very much look forward to welcoming you to Banská Štiavnica.

Lubomir Skladany assoc.prof., MD, Ph.D.