Důl Anna Mine

Důl Anna is one of the leading monuments of the industrial heritage Příbramska. It is an abandoned mine for mining silver and lead ore, located on the March Mountains in Příbrami. It was founded in 1789 by Jan Antonín Alis as the second mine in the March Reich, that is, in the period when the hand-mining of silver experienced the last boom before the industrial revolution.

The young mine has faced technical obstacles since the beginning. While digging, miners encountered a flood of groundwater - in 1867, the attempt to deepen further stopped precisely because the manual pumping of water was not enough. The turning point was 1868, when a steam engine was installed on the mine to lift water and a steam engine. This technological leap has made it possible to overcome natural obstacles and continue to dig deeper.

The small mine has gradually become a colossus. From 1914 to 1957 Anna was the deepest pit in the whole of the March region, with a depth of 1449.3 meters. Its fame culminated in the 1930s, when it belonged to the deepest mines in Europe. When the maximum possible depth of 1464,3 metres was reached in 1941, Anna became the deepest mine in Czechoslovakia until the mid-1950s. In 1929, the construction of its own thermal power plant was even started to provide energy to mining operations.

The mining was also accompanied by tragedy. On 12 January 1946, a fire broke out in Anna on the 36th floor, a crash that was hard to prevent underground. Thanks to the rapid rescue, the number of victims was limited to four miners - two died fleeing the workplace and two others sacrificed themselves in rescue work. Their funeral in the Břežové Hora later became a piety of the miners whose names today resemble a monument to mining disaster.

In later years, Anna's service gradually faded. The mining was finished here in 1978. In 1981, the mine was destroyed - the openings were sealed and buried in a depth of 40.4 metres, the shell buildings covered with concrete. The local industry slowly fell, but his soul survived.

Today, Důl Anna is part of the Mining Museum in Příbrami and its sightseeing area. Visitors can see here the original Cáchov, the engine room with the famous steam engine brand Breitfeld & Daněk, or take the mining train through the hill to the Prokopská pit, which is with nearly 1600 metres deepest shaft for mining silver throughout the region. For the braver, there is a lift to the historic underground and a walk through the so-called water floor - Wasserlauf, where it is possible to feel the cold and moisture that the old miners knew. The whole tour is marked B and remains a testament to the age when human tenacity and new technologies were conquering the depths of the earth. .