Rambles around Oloví or visiting chapels and lookout towers

Our next journey through the beauties of the Ore Mountains will take us this time a little off the most famous tourist destinations, to a town with a long mining and glassmaking tradition - to Oloví. Before we head out into the surroundings, let's briefly get acquainted with the local history.

Researching the oldest history of the town is complicated. Most of the documents were burnt in one of the fires that probably engulfed the town around 1700. We can only assume that the first inhabitants of the surrounding area were miners who verifiably came here, to the valley of the Svatava river, as early as the 12th century. It was around this time that the Hartenberg Castle was founded nearby, in whose domain there were silver and lead mines since the 14th century. The lead was first mined here by the Hartenbergs, and then by the illustrious founder of Jáchymov, Štěpán Šlik, who bought the local estate. It was Štěpán Šlik who brought new miners, whose settlement began to be called Bleistadt (Oloví). Šlik also moved the mining office to Oloví and in 1524 established the first local mining book. It is amazing what everything Štěpán Šlik contributed to our region.

It is in the oldest mining books from this period that about thirty mines in the surroundings of Oloví are recorded. The Šliks were not only skilled builders but also a bit of schemers, to use today's language. They played a high political game, which led to their downfall. The king confiscated all their property and in 1551 assigned the mining town of Oloví to the Lords of Plavno. However, they were much worse managers of the local mines than their predecessors, and so King Ferdinand I quickly took the Oloví estate away from them and assigned it under the administration of the Jáchymov mining captaincy. In 1561, Oloví was promoted to a royal mining town, marking the beginning of the golden era of local mining. The most significant of the local mines was St. Andreas, which prospered with minor fluctuations for more than 300 years.

During the mining prosperity, a bourgeois school was built in Oloví, there was a manorial brewery, several mills, and the pride of the town was the church and the town hall. Just as in all the surrounding towns, the glory of local mining began to gradually fade, and most of the local mines were closed during the 18th century. The locals had to find a new source of livelihood. They tried various things. They manufactured mother-of-pearl buttons, wooden toys, musical instruments, or bobbin lace. However, Oloví achieved its greatest fame thanks to another craft—glassmaking. Local glass became a globally renowned phenomenon from a timid attempt to establish a new livelihood. But let's take it step by step.

The glassmaking industry was brought to Oloví by Leo Weiss, a wholesale dealer in window glass. A plot of land near the Svatava river was purchased for the construction of the glassworks, which began in 1891. The operation started in the newly built complex just a year later. Sheet glass and mirrors were produced in Oloví, all in top quality, with which the local products literally conquered the whole world. The boom of local glassmaking lasted practically uninterrupted until the end of World War II. For example, in 1930, more than 1,300 employees worked in the local glassworks. Today, it is hard to imagine. When the war ended, the enterprise gradually came under Czech administration and after 1948 was incorporated into the national enterprise Západočeské sklárny. In 1965, it, together with other glassmaking companies in the Ore Mountains, was incorporated into the industry enterprise Sklo Union Teplice. The enterprise remained under the Teplice glassworks until 1989. Today, the glassworks in Oloví focus on the production of rearview mirrors for the automotive industry and also on the production of fire-resistant glass.

This time we've delved into history a bit longer, but let's get to the actual trip. You can set out on a pleasant walk around Oloví that will lead you to the Cibulka lookout tower, a popular destination for tourists. You can start directly from the square, the tourist signpost is located at the Church of St. Michael the Archangel. Follow the blue tourist trail steadily uphill until a small plain opens before you, and on it, hidden in the shade of trees, is the Chapel of St. Joseph. The chapel from 1550 was deserted and decaying, but it was saved from extinction by the Oloví Beautification Society, which had it reconstructed in 2004.

From St. Joseph, we continue further, still on the blue trail, to the signpost Nad kaplí, where we transfer to the yellow tourist route. This first leads us to the Chapel of the Holy Trinity, a unique stone building constructed between 1915 and 1917. Stucco worker Josef Fischer, who contributed most to its construction, did not live to see the completion of the chapel. He died on September 28, 1915, in a World War I battle near Tarnopol. Not every story ends happily...

From the chapel, it is just a short walk to the Cibulka lookout tower, which stands on Gallows Hill. The thirty-meter steel structure was completed in 2014 and today attracts many tourists to the surroundings of Oloví. If you muster the courage to climb up, you will be rewarded with a beautiful view of the surrounding Ore Mountains, as well as the Medard Lake, or the towns of Sokolov and Karlovy Vary down in the foothills. From the lookout tower, it's just a short distance back to the church in Oloví, where our journey today ends. Until next time!

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