Erzgebirge/Krušnohoří Mining Region

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The Erzgebirge/Krušnohoří Mining Region: A Testament to Eight Centuries of Mining Innovation

The Erzgebirge/Krušnohoří Mining Region, located in the shared border area of the Ore Mountains between the German state of Saxony and North Bohemia in the Czech Republic, stands as a remarkable testament to eight centuries of mining innovation. Inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site on 6 July 2019, this industrial heritage landscape offers a unique insight into the historical development of mining technology, as well as the profound impact it had on society, culture, and science.

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UNESCO Description of the World Heritage Site

Erzgebirge/Krušnohoří (Ore Mountains) spans a region in south-eastern Germany (Saxony) and north-western Czechia, which contains a wealth of several metals exploited through mining from the Middle Ages onwards. The region became the most important source of silver ore in Europe from 1460 to 1560. Mining was the trigger for technological and scientific innovations transferred worldwide. Tin was historically the second metal to be extracted and processed at the site. At the end of the 19th century, the region became a major global producer of uranium. The cultural landscape of the Ore Mountains has been deeply shaped by 800 years of almost continuous mining, from the 12th to the 20th century, with mining, pioneering water management systems, innovative mineral processing and smelting sites, and mining cities.

UNESCO Justification of the World Heritage Site

Criterion (ii): The mining region of Erzgebirge/Krušnohoří is an exceptional testimony to the outstanding role and strong global influence of the Saxon-Bohemian Ore Mountains as a centre for technological and scientific innovations from the Renaissance up to the modern era. During several periods of mining history, significant achievements related to the mining industry emanated from the region and were successfully transferred, or influenced subsequent developments in other mining regions. This includes, among other achievements, the founding of the first mining high school. The continuous worldwide emigration of highly trained Saxon-Bohemian miners played a key role in the interchange of developments in, and improvements to, mining technology and its related sciences. Manifestations of this interchange are still evident in the Erzgebirge/Krušnohoří Mining Region.

Criterion (iii): The mining region of Erzgebirge/Krušnohoří bears exceptional testimony to technological, scientific, administrative, educational, managerial and social aspects that underpin the intangible dimension of living traditions, ideas and beliefs of the people associated with the Ore Mountains’ culture. The organization as well as its hierarchical administration and management are fundamental to understanding the mining tradition of the Ore Mountains that developed from the beginning of the 16th century. A tradition emerged whereby the mining bureaucracies of absolute rulers maintained strict control of the work force and induced a favourable climate for an early capitalistic system of financing. Such an approach influenced the economic, legal, administrative and social system of mining in all the mining regions of continental Europe. The state-controlled mining organization strongly influenced the development of early modern monetary systems, particularly witnessed by the royal mint in Jáchymov, where the heavy silver coins known as thalers, first minted from 1520, served for several centuries as a standard for the monetary systems in many European countries, and became a predecessor of the ‘dollar’ currency.

Criterion (iv): The mining region of Erzgebirge/Krušnohoří represents a coherent mining landscape with specific proportions of land dedicated in specific places to mining, dictated by the uneven distribution and concentration of ore deposits, and exploited in different periods and processing operations, to water management and forestry, to urbanization, agriculture, transport and communications – a pattern of nodes and concentrations, of linear connecting features, all developed in successive phases under increasing state control. Well-preserved mine workings, technological ensembles and landscape features bear witness to all known major extracting and processing technologies applied from the late medieval period to modern times, as well as to the development of extensive, sophisticated water management systems both aboveground and underground. The mining activities led to the unparalleled development of a dense settlement pattern both in the valleys and in very high, harsh upland positions, featuring a close connection to the surrounding mining landscapes.

Encyclopedia Record: Ore Mountain Mining Region

The Ore Mountain Mining Region is an industrial heritage landscape, over 800 years old, in the border region of the Ore Mountains between the German state of Saxony and North Bohemia in the Czech Republic. It is characterised by a plethora of historic, largely original, monuments to technology, as well as numerous individual monuments and collections related to the historic mining industry of the region. On 6 July 2019, the Erzgebirge/Krušnohoří Mining Region was inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, because of its exceptional testimony to the advancement of mining technology over the past 800 years.

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