Hornická kulturní krajina Abertamy – Horní Blatná – Boží Dar Landscape heritage zone

Welcome to the heart of the Ernest Mountains. You are standing in a place where the natural beauty of wild mountain peaks combines with the incredible power of human effort. While you're looking around, believe me, you don't just see the plain valleys and hills. You see a living document written for centuries. Feel this atmosphere, this calm, which is only superficial. Under your steps, deep underground and in the very structure of this landscape, there is a story about finding treasures, hard work, and how a man could completely transform the face of the whole country. This area that is now surrounding you is something much bigger than just a set of villages and paths. It is a large-scale entity that shows how the mining of precious metals has created a whole new type of world.

Let us now return together in time to understand why this place is so special. To understand the present, we need to look at the beginnings that go deep into the 16th century. More than five years ago, at the turn of the twentieth and 30th years of the year a thousand five hundred thirty, a whole new chapter of history began to be written here. People came here with hope and a clear goal. They were looking for tin, the precious metal that was crucial to the development of technology and crafts at the time. It is this search for ore that has become the engine that has moved this entire territory. What was previously just inhospitable and wild mountain slopes began to turn into an organized space. Here were born the first mining settlements to become important centres in the future.

Now pay attention to how this landscape is arranged. Although it may seem to you that cities and villages here lie naturally, it is actually a result of very careful planning. Take a look at the locations of the villages such as Abertamy, Upper Blatna or God's Gift. These places were not created by a random cluster of houses. It was deliberately built mining towns. Their creation was closely linked to the development of mining, as it happened in nearby Jáchymov. Notice how these settlements are integrated into a separate terrain. Their structure, their arrangement in the valleys and on the slopes, reflects the needs of the people who lived and worked here. Even though you're looking at a quiet landscape today, in its shape, you can still see the old, strict logic of the mining order. Every road, every place where the human eye has stopped has a reason why it's lying here right now.

When you look at the surrounding mountains, you might be wondering who shaped this whole country. Although the names of the particular people who have benefited here have been lost in the fog of time, their presence is felt in every detail of this landscape. Imagine the thousands of unknown hands dealing with hard rock, the thousands of people who built homes here and created communities in conditions that might scare us today. This landscape is a monument to unknown heroes who have created the basis for the region's flourishing. Their lives were inseparable from the rhythm of mining and the mood of the mountains. Even if we don't read about them in textbooks, their legacy is in every piece of this earth, every extermination stone and every shape of the valley.

Did you know that this region is so extraordinary that the whole world recognized it? It's a fascinating fact that gives this place meaning. This area has gone a long way to be recognized as the treasure of humanity. Already in the year two thousand fourteen, this area was declared a landscape monument zone, starting with its protection on a wider scale. But that was just the beginning. The true peak of recognition was that, since the year two thousand nineteen, this mining landscape has been listed on the most prestigious list of world heritage. This means that what you see and what you are standing in is one of the most valuable cultural and natural treasures on our planet. It is a rare combination of human work and natural processes that is unprecedented throughout the world.

And if you're even more interested in history, you can focus on other sights in the surrounding area, such as the Blaten Water Trench, which was already written on the list of cultural monuments in the year one thousand nine hundred eighty-one. All these elements, from the old waterways to the mining fields themselves, form one big, amazing puzzle, which is this landscape.

So don't let them take you, but keep going. Let the atmosphere of these mountains drift. Go through the roads that people came here hundreds of years ago. Feel the silence of the mountains, but also the hidden story that takes place here. Every step can lead you to a new discovery. This landscape has something to offer you if you look at it with the eyes of a man looking for more than a beautiful view. I wish you a wonderful journey and many interesting experiences while researching this special place. I will say goodbye to you and leave you with your own impressions and admiration of this beautiful land.