THE TOWN WHERE RADIOACTIVE TREATMENT BEGAN
Introduction
Few towns have connected their fate with the underground as strongly as Jáchymov. First, the depths of the Ore Mountains brought it silver and wealth, later minerals that changed humanity’s understanding of the very nature of matter. At the beginning of the 20th century, however, something else came from the same underground – water that gave rise to an entirely new direction in treatment.
The discovery of radioactivity at the end of the 19th century was one of the greatest scientific events of its time. The research of the Curies, who also used Jáchymov pitchblende in their work, drew scientists’ attention to substances hidden in the ores of the Ore Mountains.
In Jáchymov, however, radioactivity did not remain merely a subject of laboratory research. Local doctors and experts began looking for ways to use its properties in practice.
History
For centuries, Jáchymov was a mining town. Its mines first produced silver and later cobalt and uranium ores. However, during uranium mining, it became clear that the mine waters had extraordinary properties.
At the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, their scientific investigation began. It was confirmed that waters flowing out of the old mine workings contained the natural radioactive gas radon. At a time of enormous interest in radioactivity, the idea emerged to use these waters for treatment.
In 1906, the world’s first radon spa was founded in Jáchymov. It was not based on the tradition of ordinary mineral springs, but on what was then a completely new discovery – the use of natural radioactivity in balneology.
The beginnings were very modest. Therapeutic baths were not provided in large spa buildings, but used water brought from the mines. Nevertheless, it was here that the principle was created which was later adopted by other spa locations.
Jáchymov thus underwent an unusual transformation. A place from which raw materials hidden underground had been transported away for centuries began to use the underground itself as a source of healing.
Legacy
The establishment of the Jáchymov radon spa marked the beginning of a new field – radon balneology. The town gradually transformed from a mining centre into a spa destination known far beyond the borders of the Czech lands.
The same element that had previously been associated mainly with ores and industry became the foundation of therapeutic methods still used today. Jáchymov thus created a unique connection between mining history, scientific knowledge, and medicine.
The story of the town is exceptional in this respect. Silver from the Jáchymov mines influenced world currency, uranium ore helped science understand radioactivity, and water from the same mountains gave rise to the world’s first radon spa.
Jáchymov therefore once again showed that its greatest wealth was not only in what was extracted from the earth, but also in how people were able to use these discoveries.
