Adits No.1 Jáchymov

Jáchymov is one of the most significant historical mining towns in the Czech Republic. In the 16th century, it became famous for its silver mining and the subsequent minting of silver coins called tolars (from which the name of the US currency, the dollar, is derived). Although the silver rush subsided within a few decades, mining activities continued—alongside silver, there were also lead, arsenic, cobalt, nickel, and tin, as well as pitchblende, which was used to color glass. It was precisely in Jáchymov's pitchblende that the Curie couple discovered new elements—polonium and radium—in 1898. This discovery brought both bright (radon spas) and dark sides to the town. From the late 1940s, massive uranium mining took place in the Jáchymov area for the needs of the USSR's weapons program. Political prisoners—muklové (a man destined for liquidation)—were used for this mining. They worked and lived in utterly inadequate conditions (lack of food, poor equipment, no protection against radiation, no medical care, etc.).

Among the monuments to the mining of silver and uranium ores are the Štola č. 1 complex and the neighboring Svornost mine. The Štola č. 1 was cut during extensive exploratory work by the former Jáchymov Mines from 1952 to 1953. It is 230 meters long, and one of the side tunnels intersects with the silver-bearing Evangelist vein that was mined in the past.

The work to make the adit accessible took place from 2006 to 2008. Inside the adit, there is also a small exhibition of mining equipment—mining carts, drills, etc. In 2012, it was possible to clean and secure the older mining works from the time of the silver rush at the turn of the 15th and 16th centuries.