From the TWHS “Ore Mountains mining landscape” that has a great chance to be inscribed on the list this year, I visited historical center of Freiberg on the German side, and all five sites nominated by Czechia: (i) Jáchymov mining landscape, (ii) Abertamy – Horní Blatná – Boží Dar mining landscape, (iii) Krupka mining landscape, (iv) Měděnec (Měďník) mining landscape, and I saw (v) Red Tower of Death from distance of few hundreds meters going by bus from Jáchymov towards Ostrov and Karlovy Vary.

Despite a slight over-representation of mines on the list, I have to admit that the phenomenon of mining played a key role in the development, economy, and also scientific research of Central Europe. It resulted in knowledge and wealth that were eventually distributed worldwide. Among the mining WHSs that I visited (Goslar-Rammelsberg in German Harz Mountains; Banská Šťavnica in Slovak Ore Mountains; and Kutná Hora mining town in Czechia), the Erzgebirge/Krušnohoří landscape is kind of exceptional because of its enormous size and large diversity in terms of typology, landscape, nature, architecture and also of materials (silver, tin, cobalt, copper, iron ore, coal, uranium and other elements such as molybdenum, tungsten, lithium, radium, radon, etc.)

My impression from the visited sites:

(A) Germany – the majority of nominated sites are located there, but I visited only town of Frieberg (I traveled from Dresden by train). It happened two times and in both cases it was during Christmas, and I enjoyed the Christmas Market there much more than those in Dresden. Spirit of mining traditions was strongly evident during Freiberg Christmas feasts. Be prepared that winter is pretty tough here, and heavy snowing might be quite frequent.

Freiberg is biggest and oldest mining town in Ore Mountains founded in 12th century. The town contains quite dense but regular network of streets and several squares with a lot of houses from Middle Ages. Due to rough weather, houses are quite compact with high roofs. The cathedral is not very spectacular from outside, but it has pretty interesting interior with incredible late-gothic but shockingly modern pulpit, other gothic sculptures and great Romanesque portal called Golden Gate inspired by French cathedral style.

The highlight for me was visiting of museum Terra Mineralia in the former castle with really vast collection of minerals from all over the world including of course Ore Mountains.

(B) Czechia: I chose beautiful spa town Karlovy Vary (another TWHS) as a “base camp” for exploration of the mining sites in Krušné Hory (Ore Mountains), and it took three days to me. All of them are in principle accessible by train or bus: Horní Blatná directly from Karlovy Vary – ca. 1 hour; Krupka from Karlovy Vary via Teplice combined with local bus – quite long 2.5 hours from KV; Měděnec by local train from Chomutov during weekends only, so I travel from Karlovy Vary by train to the train stop Perštejn ca. 0.5 hour, and walked uphill (attitude from 400 to 900 m) for 7 km = 2.5 hours; Jáchymov, Abertamy, Boží Dar and Ostrov with the Red Tower are easily accessible by local buses from Karlovy Vary (all around 1 hour or less).

(B1) Abretamy-Horní Blatná-Boží Dar mining landscape is beautiful mountainous plateau with attitude around 1000 m, covered by spruce forests, pastures, and large bog areas (national nature reserve Božídarské rašliniště) with scattered sorbus trees and with traces after intensive mining in 16-20th century. I visited old tin mine Mauritius close to Abertamy (check web pages montanregion.cz), and it was very interesting experience. Old mining town Horní Blatná is also included to the core zone, and it has regular Renaissance structure with large church in the middle of square. Town is nice but not extremely spectacular. Furthermore, some parts are in decay and waiting for restoration. On the slopes of hill called Blatný vrch, very close to Horní Blatná, there are perhaps the most spectacular traces from mining of tin in this mining landscape: Vlčí Jámy and Sněžné Jámy. They resemble rocky canyons, now partly covered by forest.

(B2) Then, I travel from Horní Blatná to Jáchymov by bus, and I spent there only half an hour that is definitely not enough to explore everything interesting in the area. Jáchymov is certainly the most important part of the Czech cluster. It was almost deserted in Saturday’s late afternoon undergoing thorough reconstruction of the main square. The condition of many buildings of Jáchymov is quite bad and I hope that the inscription should accelerate the restoration works.

(B3) I could see Red Tower of Death (in Czech: Rudá věž smrti) through bus window when traveling from Jáchymov back to Karlovy Vary. It was nicely visible, because it is in the middle of brown-fields with already pulled-down factories around. The Tower is declared as the national monument and it is not regularly accessible yet. In Czech language, red means “červený” but “rudý” (with meaning deep red) is used in this case, and the reason for that is not color of the Tower but connotations with color of Communist Revolution. The Tower is now sad symbol of Communists repressions. It was used for sorting of pure uranium ore intended for export to Soviet Union. It was very dusty inside, thus many political prisoners died there.

(B4) Next day, I went to Krupka by train. I traveled from Karlovy Vary, but the place is also accessible by train from Prague. The best way is to get-off in town Teplice and traveled uphill to Komáří vížka by local bus in direction to Fojtovice village. The cable car is also the option, but its operation is limited and it is also much more expensive than the bus. There are excellent views, miners´ chapel of St. Wolfgang and big holes after mining. Then, we easily walked down in direction to historic center of Krupka via small settlement Horní Krupka (there are marked trails). There are several tin mines on the slopes, but only one is accessible for visitors: Štola Starý Martin. I did not visit it, because I was in the old mine day before… Instead, we enjoyed the town Krupka, which is very small – just one street surrounded by steep slopes, and nearby ruins of the castle with excellent views. I must say that it was very pleasant place!

(PHOTO – view towards the core of Krupka mining landscape from the castle)

(B5) The last day of my stay in this corner of Czechia, I decided to go to town Měděnec and visit Mědník hill. Names are derived from Czech word měď = copper, because of intensive mining of this metal there. It is located on the main range of Ore Mountains. The town had originally a rectangular street-frame with square and church in the middle, but it was almost completely destroyed and abandoned after closing of mines and after WWII. Now, it is very tranquil place with beautiful nature all around. Only small Měďník hill close to the town is included to the core zone. It is easily recognizable because of the small round Baroque chapel on the top. The hill is penetrated by old mining works like Ementaller cheese!

To conclude: I must say that I enjoyed my trip to the Mining landscapes of Krušné Hory. All the sites are kind of special, and I cannot say, which one is the most beautiful. I was also thinking if the Czech components are more or less valuable than those on the Saxony side of Ore Mountains. I have no answer at the moment. The Czech sites are maybe more authentic – read this that some of them urgently need restoration, especially towns of Jáchymov and Horní Blatná, but they are certainly not tourist traps. Some travelers complained that locals might be rude to travelers, but I have different experience.