JÁCHYMOV – gateway to the Ore Mountains

Just as the United States has its Founding Fathers, Jáchymov had its own. Beyond the well-known Schlik family stood a group of individuals whose initiative, capital, expertise and political influence made the creation and rapid rise of the town possible. Without these five men, Jáchymov might never have achieved its remarkable position in early modern Europe.

Between the sixteenth and eighteenth centuries, Jáchymov was not only a major mining centre but also a distinctive legal entity in which three different legal systems coexisted: Magdeburg municipal law, independent mining law, and the right of high justice. Their interaction created an unusually effective legal structure that shaped the town’s stability and development for centuries.

The local railway from Ostrov to Jáchymov was one of the most technically demanding mountain lines of its time. With extreme gradients, the shortest railway tunnel in what is now the Czech Republic, and challenging operating conditions, it significantly influenced the town’s economic development for more than sixty years. Its history is closely linked to mining, industry, the spa tradition and the political upheavals of the twentieth century.