JÁCHYMOV – gateway to the Ore Mountains

In 1716, an institution was established in Jáchymov that changed the way mining specialists were educated. The first state-organized professional mining school in the world combined theoretical teaching, practical experience, and a scientific approach, becoming a model for other mining schools in Europe. Jáchymov thus gave the world not only silver, the thaler, or later radium, but also a new idea – that mining was not merely a craft passed down from generation to generation, but a field that could be systematically studied.

At a time when Jáchymov became one of the most important mining centres in Europe, it was not only new mines, technical methods, and enormous wealth that emerged beneath the Ore Mountains. An exceptionally modern approach to human care also developed here. In 1526, a public pharmacy was established here, which is the oldest documented public pharmacy in the territory of today’s Czech Republic. It was connected to a system of healthcare for miners that was, in many ways, far ahead of its time.

In the first half of the 16th century, Jáchymov was not only a place from which silver and the famous thalers flowed out into the world. It also became one of the most important mining laboratories of its time. It was here that the physician and scholar Georgius Agricola worked, laying the foundations of modern mining science through his observations of the local mines, miners, and metallurgical processes. Thanks to Jáchymov, knowledge passed down through generations began to transform into a systematically described scientific discipline.

At a time when the world was only beginning to discover the secrets of radioactivity, Jáchymov transformed a scientific discovery into a new method of treatment. In 1906, the world’s first radon spa was established here, systematically using natural radioactive water for therapeutic purposes. The mining town, known for centuries mainly for silver, the thaler, and uranium, thus opened a new chapter in the history of spa treatment worldwide.

Today, most people associate uranium from Jáchymov primarily with radioactivity and the nuclear age. Yet long before the discovery of nuclear fission, it had a completely different use. Ores extracted in the Ore Mountains were used to produce uranium colours, which gave glass and ceramics their characteristic yellow, green, and orange shades. Jáchymov thus also stood at the beginning of the first industrial use of an element that would later change the world.

It was neither long nor a main railway line. Nevertheless, the Jáchymov railway managed to become one of the most interesting lines in the Czech lands. Within just a few kilometres, it contained extraordinary technical solutions – one of the steepest non-rack railways in the country as well as the shortest railway tunnel in the Czech Republic, only 18.3 metres long. The railway line that once connected Jáchymov with the world lives on today as a cycle path following its original route.

Everyone who travels from Ostrov to Jáchymov passes a striking ruin of an old building in the bend below the former railway tunnel. Most people see it merely as the remains of an abandoned operation. Few, however, realize that they are looking at an exceptionally valuable technical monument. Petrův Mill, originally known as Petermühle, was built between 1525 and 1530 and is considered the oldest preserved water mill in the territory of the Czech Republic.

For centuries, people searched the underground of Jáchymov mainly for silver, later for cobalt and uranium. However, the true wealth of these mountains is far more diverse. Jáchymov ranks among the most important mineralogical localities in the world and, thanks to the extraordinary number of discovered mineral species, represents a unique natural laboratory. The place that gave the world the famous thalers also helped reveal dozens of minerals previously unknown to humankind.

At a time when illness was often seen primarily as an individual’s fate, the physician Václav Payer from Loket introduced an unusually modern perspective. Based on his experience with the environment of the Jáchymov mines, he drew attention to the connection between miners’ work and their health problems. In 1523, he published a work dedicated to miners’ diseases, which belongs among the beginnings of occupational medicine.

At a time when the mines of Jáchymov began reaching ever deeper into the heart of the Ore Mountains, miners encountered a problem that could not be seen but determined whether further mining was possible – the lack of air. In 1522, a bellows blower was used in the Bock Adit, also known as the Pock Adit, to provide forced air supply. It is one of the oldest known examples of mechanical mine ventilation in the world.