Central Europe is famous for its rich mining history. Since the Middle Ages, the Czech lands have played an important role in ore mining. In the world-famous mining centre of Jáchymov, the “father of mining and mineralogy” Georgius Agricola worked.
Alongside gold and silver, tin was especially mined here, mainly in the Slavkovský Forest and the Ore Mountains. At first, tin was collected by panning; later, miners extracted it from deeper underground deposits.
The Slavkovský Forest is located in western Bohemia, between the towns of Kynšperk nad Ohří, Karlovy Vary, and Mariánské Lázně, about 130 km west of Prague. Today it is a protected landscape area with preserved original nature and is considered one of the most beautiful parts of western Bohemia.
(návštěvnická verze, anglicky)
The beginnings of underground mining at the Čistá site (Lauterbach) date back to the first half of the 16th century, after the surrounding placer deposits had been exhausted. Placer tin mining was carried out here as early as the 14th century.
Although the Čistá mine never reached the importance of the Krásno and Horní Slavkov areas, it was officially registered by the mining office as early as 1 January 1548. Mining developed quickly — on 20 June 1551, King Ferdinand granted Čistá the mining rights and privileges of a royal mining town. These rights were confirmed and expanded by later rulers.
The town had its own tin scale, smelter, and the right to freely extract timber in royal forests. Tin ore was mined using the “fire-setting” method: the rock was first heated by fire to high temperatures and then quickly cooled with water. The sudden temperature change cracked the rock, making it easier to break up with simple hand tools. All mining at that time was done by hand, without machines.
In 1772, a great fire destroyed almost all written records about the mine’s history, so information is scarce. From the few surviving documents, we know that mining declined in the 17th and 18th centuries and mainly continued to maintain the status of a mining town. By 1619, only about 3,200 kg of tin were mined; by 1740, this dropped to just 250 kg. In 1847, the mine was classified as exhausted.
Some sporadic mining continued — in 1887, shafts and tunnels were reopened and a small amount of tin was extracted. Some mining still took place in 1905, but after World War I, the mine was completely closed. Altogether, about 500–700 tons of tin were extracted at Čistá over its entire history.
During World War II (1940–1943), the Egerlander Erzbergbau GmbH company carried out exploration work again. The Jeroným tunnel and shaft were cleaned and reopened to a depth of 26 meters. However, large-scale mining did not resume, and only test processing was done.
After the war, only geological surveys were carried out (1964–1966), confirming about 2.5 million tons of tin-tungsten ore suitable for industrial use. These works did not damage the medieval chambers created by fire-setting.
In 1982, Mr. František Baroch discovered previously inaccessible underground spaces near the Jeroným mine. These old workings are dry and drain naturally through the Jeroným tunnel. They were likely cut off from the main mine by collapses at the end of the 16th or early 17th century and have remained untouched since then. Many walls and ceilings are still blackened by soot from medieval fire-setting, and you can see marks left by the miners’ hand tools.
Most of these passages are filled with fine sand brought in by seeping water. The discovered spaces were secured and an entrance portal was built by the company GEOMONT Příbram, funded by the Czech Ministry of the Environment.
The entire Jeroným Mine was declared a cultural monument on 16 February 1990 and is listed under number 4515 in the National Register of Cultural Monuments.
In 1994, the Sokolov Regional Museum commissioned GEOMONT to prepare a study on possible future uses for the mine — as an educational site for mining tourism, geology, research and culture. Today, the Georgia Agricola Foundation coordinates work to protect mining heritage in the Slavkovský Forest region.
In 2008, the entire Jeroným Mine (previously managed by the Ministry of the Environment and DIAMO) was transferred to the ownership of the Karlovy Vary Region. Today, it is managed by the Sokolov Museum. That same year, the mine was declared a National Cultural Monument.
To open the mine to the public, project plans were prepared for an underground tour route and for building a visitor centre and parking area. An application for funding was submitted in 2011, but was not approved. A second application in 2014 succeeded, allowing part of the mine to be opened to visitors in autumn 2013, thanks to support from the Georgia Agricola Foundation, the Slavkovský Forest Region, and the Karlovy Vary Region.
⚠️ Important Notice: Because Jeroným is a National Cultural Monument, the aim is to preserve the mine in its original condition. This means only minimal changes to the tunnels and chambers. The route is more demanding — visitors must be careful on the uneven ground and watch out for low ceilings.
The entrance portal was rebuilt in the 1990s. The tunnel is secured with steel supports (called hajcmany) and sprayed with concrete. Originally, there was wooden reinforcement, but it was removed later. You can see the steel supports under the steps at the tunnel entrance.
The storage area is not part of the guided tour. It is used to store materials. The side tunnel here is about 7 meters long and fully supported with steel reinforcements.
Here you can see granite with cassiterite (tin ore) from Přebuzi, donated by Petr Rojík, and a rock with quartz crystals and purple and green fluorite from Jeroným.
In the past, ore-bearing rock was crushed and sorted by gravity (sieving). Tin is heavier than the surrounding granite and quartz, so it could be separated. The typical ratio after sorting was about 50% tin ore to 50% waste rock. The ore was then weighed, smelted in a local smelter and made into products — mainly household items like dishes and cutlery.
Tin panning in the Slavkovský Forest is probably the oldest tin mining in Bohemia. It was likely linked to the Teplá Monastery, founded in 1197.
Three main mining centres developed in this area: Horní Slavkov, Krásno, and Čistá. Horní Slavkov became a small town in 1390. In the 14th century, Krásno was even more important — it had a mining court and a tin weighing office from 1355. Čistá became a mining town a bit later, but its modern importance remained small.
In the Middle Ages, Czech tin played a significant role on the European market. It is estimated that from 1500 to 1620, about 55,000 tons of tin were produced from ore mined in the Czech lands — a large part of it came from the Slavkovský Forest.
Although Jeroným Mine was not very significant in terms of total production, its importance today lies in the fact that it has been preserved in its original state. Unlike the mines in Krásno and Horní Slavkov, visitors can still see fresh-looking tool marks, soot-blackened walls from fire-setting, and other signs of historic mining techniques.
The Chapel shows how the mine is supported under the road above. Its arch shape gave it the name “Chapel”. In a hand-carved niche, there is a statue of Saint Barbara, the patron saint of miners.
Above the chamber, the road crosses over a sunken concrete bridge built in the 1990s — you can see cracks in the asphalt on the surface. Below the Chapel, on the left side, there is a small chamber with clear marks left by hand mining tools.
The Jeroným Mine is a popular winter shelter for bats. Every autumn (around October, depending on the weather) bats fly into the mine to hibernate. In spring (March–April), they leave again.
During this period, the mine must stay quiet — no tours or work are allowed. Each February, the bats are counted. In the 2024–2025 season, 458 bats were recorded (due to a cold winter), including the rare Bechstein’s bat, seen here for only the second time in western Bohemia. About six bat species live here. In 2013–2014, during a mild winter, only about 90 bats were counted.
The chamber’s walls still show tool marks from medieval mining. The path to the next chamber has a steep descent, so extra caution is needed.
Here you can see preserved examples of walls blackened by fire-setting, an old mining technique. Rocks were heated by large wood fires until they glowed, then quickly cooled with water. The sudden change caused cracks in the rock, making it easier to break apart using chisels and hammers.
This chamber shows beautiful hand-carved tunnels. Progress was very slow — miners could advance only about 1–2 centimetres per day for the entire tunnel profile.
Below the walkway, you can see original wooden troughs that have kept their shape thanks to stable underground temperature and humidity. The troughs were used to channel water along the walls.
This chamber is named for its reddish rocks, coloured by iron deposits. Iron in the water precipitates and stains the stone red wherever the water flows down the walls.
The Jeroným Mine is naturally ventilated through 2–3 places. One ventilation shaft is just around the corner in the upper chamber and can be seen on the surface as a small stone chimney in a field. There is a small amount of radon here, so the Sokolov Museum must legally monitor radon levels.
Miners in the past had very little light — they used small oil lamps or simple candles. In 2023, a wedding ceremony even took place in this chamber!
Miners once accessed this chamber by vertical shafts, called pits. The pit closer to the chamber was dug in the 1990s and is 24 meters deep. The exit is on a concrete platform near a large collapse pit (pinka).
Another pit nearby is original, from the 16th century, rediscovered when the newer pit was cleaned. It has been restored and reinforced with wooden supports using traditional techniques. Side chambers here have been stabilised and backfilled.
A few years ago, this chamber was flooded. Water was pumped out through a drainage route. Clearing out the silt and opening new spaces has helped redirect water to flow into other parts of the mine’s drainage system.
The collapse was removed by hand — material was loaded into buckets, carried on a small mine cart, then lifted up using a winch. From there, it was tipped into a larger bucket (skip) and hoisted up the pit to the surface.
Further work reinforced the collapse area with steel supports (hajcmany). A supported tunnel from here leads to the “R” Chamber.
This chamber was once completely filled with sand and mud. Work to reopen it started in 2011. In 2014, cleaning a side tunnel revealed new spaces. Inside, you can see a wooden platform built using traditional methods. The railing is made of original round timber. There is also an old wooden pipe, once part of the mine’s water pumping system. In a small niche stands King Gultun, the mythical king of mining dwarves (Permoníci).
This last chamber is closed at the end, so water collects here and must be pumped out regularly. You can see initials “P.H.” carved into the rock along with a date. The unstable ceiling is reinforced using a traditional timber technique called hrání.
Visitors must be careful here — the passage is narrow and low. The collapse above is stabilized from the surface and appears on top as a large sinkhole (pinka). Steel supports (hajcmany) and steel casing (Union casing) help hold the ground in place.
This space was discovered in 2014. Dry stone walls were built to support an unstable pillar, and its stability is regularly measured. In 2017, about one meter of material was excavated to reach the current floor level. The ceiling still shows visible cracks in the rock.
Visitors cross this chamber on a wooden bridge. On the walls, you can still see charred marks from ancient fire-setting.
Under the stairs is an original stone wall once used to hold back water. The chamber’s walls are reddish from iron deposits (hematite). Hand-carved stone stairs lead down through original carved doors into Chamber “C2”. Water from Chamber “B2” drains into the old drainage tunnels and then to the Jeroným adit (dědičná štola).
A narrow hand-cut passage leads from here to Chamber “D2”, where the initials “MF” and a mining symbol are carved. Behind “D2” is a collapse linked to the old KŠ I shaft. At the top of “B2”, you can see notches cut in the walls that once held timber supports for platforms or flooring. Above, a small adit connects into the chamber.
The standard tour route ends here — but there is an “Extreme Route”, which continues through tight, low tunnels. In places, you can find traces of blasting, probably from the 17th century. The extreme route finishes in the old drainage tunnels (ODD), where visitors climb ladders up a shaft about 30 meters deep to reach the surface.
Originally a simple adit, it was later widened from the top down and is one of the oldest parts of the mine. You can see clear chisel marks left by medieval miners. From “C2”, there is access to the KŠ I shaft. On the chamber wall, you can see the contact zone between granite and gneiss — one of the richest ore areas in the mine. A drainage tunnel leading to “D2” probably carried water away from the KŠ I shaft.