This adit documents the mining past of the Ore Mountains region, which dates back at least 5 centuries. When we approach it along the lonely forest route, we hear the gurgling of the brook and see drops of water glittering on the moss. However, in the 16th century – the golden age of mining in this region – it was a lot busier here than it is today; the landscape was stripped of its trees and the clatter of water wheels and smelters could be heard along the stream. When going down into the mine we are descending into the depths of the history of the region as a whole, which was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in July 2019 as the “Erzgebirge/Krušnohoří mining region”.

The reason that the Johannes adit and the Ore Mountains mining region have been declared a UNESCO site is the fact that it is from this region that findings and innovations in mining and metallurgy spread from as far back as the Middle Ages, and were put into writing by Georgius Agricola, a doctor from Jáchymov, now considered as the founder of the geological sciences. This knowledge and the centuries-old tradition of mining were later presented by Jan Tadeáš Peithner from nearby Boží Dar, who founded the first mining school in the world in Prague in 1763. (The present oldest existing university in this field is nearby Freiberg in Saxony, which is part of the same mining region on the German side and which played an important role in the shaping of the geological sciences in Europe.) This entire mining landscape is the result of geological diversity and the presence of ores, centuries of mining, the boom in human knowledge, but also the displacement of the entire landscape after the Second World War. The overall impression of the places we pass through here is mysterious and wistful, but above all astonishment at the incredible mine works, all created entirely by human hands. Agricola’s work on mining and metallurgy is accompanied by hundreds of woodcuts images with illustrative descriptions and pictures of mining work. Here the miners look like fairy-tale mythical figures, with the Renaissance landscape of the Ore Mountains in the background. They offer a look into a completely different world – a world of different values, different temporal dimensions – into a world that is practically mythical as regards the incredible and unimaginable nature of the work done by the local miners in just a few centuries. When touring the Johannes adit we see this world – armed with torches, wellington boots and modern equipment, we experience the truly powerful sense of descending into the depths of time – geological, historical and mythical.

Besides this being a remarkable experience, we can also see old cave-ins, timbering, mine water bubbling underfoot, pictures formed by fungi growing on the walls, old mining signs. We can try to heft heavy magnetite and in the extended part of the tour we can literally crawl along the places where the miners lay for hours lit just by the light of the burner. It is here that one understands why the miners used to say, and still say to this day: “Zdař Bůh!” (“God be with you”)

Keywords: history of natural sciences; geology; mineralogy; Mining; Montanregion Erzgebirge/Krušnohoří