Grünthal Silver-Copper Liquation Works and Annaberg-Frohnau Mining Landscape

Waypoint introductions and full write-ups

1. 1. Grünthal Silver-Copper Liquation Works

   Down in the valley of the Flöha, on the edge of Olbernhau, stands an industrial village that looks almost too neat to be real: slate-roofed workshops, a hammer mill, workers' houses and a stout gatehouse, all enclosed within a wall. This is the Saigerhütte Grünthal, a works that separated silver from copper ore by a technique called liquation, and it is one of the best preserved sites of its kind in Europe. It forms part of the Erzgebirge/Krušnohoří Mining Region, listed by UNESCO in 2019 for both the German and Czech sides of the range.

   Read the complete Grünthal Silver-Copper Liquation Works write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Grünthal Silver-Copper Liquation Works is where the day begins. Next is Marienberg Mining Town.

2. 2. Marienberg Mining Town

   In 1521 Duke Heinrich of Saxony founded a new town in the Ore Mountains to house miners drawn by recent silver strikes, and he had it laid out on a regular grid around a huge square market place, following Renaissance ideas of the ideal city. Marienberg is the result, and its plan is still clearly visible, with straight streets, the town church, the Zschopau gate and a stretch of town wall. The town is part of the Erzgebirge/Krušnohoří Mining Region, the cross-border World Heritage Site inscribed in 2019, which recognises eight hundred years of mining in these mountains.

   Read the complete Marienberg Mining Town write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Marienberg Mining Town comes up about 18 km into the recorded legs. Next is Ehrenfriedersdorf Mining Landscape.

3. 3. Ehrenfriedersdorf Mining Landscape

   Tin, not silver, was the business of Ehrenfriedersdorf. For around eight hundred years miners dug into the Sauberg hill above this small Erzgebirge town for tin ore, and the Ehrenfriedersdorf mining landscape, with its shafts, spoil heaps, ponds and ditches, is one of the components of the Erzgebirge/Krušnohoří Mining Region World Heritage Site. The Sauberg visitor mine lets you go underground into galleries worked by generations of miners, and the hard hat, the damp cold and the drip of water make the history very physical.

   Read the complete Ehrenfriedersdorf Mining Landscape write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   about 35 km into the recorded legs you reach Ehrenfriedersdorf Mining Landscape. Next is Lauta Mining Landscape.

4. 4. Lauta Mining Landscape

   Marienberg was laid out in 1521 as a planned silver town, with a vast square market place and streets set in a grid, an idea of urban order that was new in this part of Europe. Lauta, today a district of Marienberg, lies among the old mine workings, spoil heaps and shafts that fed that wealth, and it is one of the components of the Erzgebirge/Krušnohoří Mining Region, the cross-border World Heritage Site shared by Saxony and the Czech Republic and inscribed in 2019.

   Read the complete Lauta Mining Landscape write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Lauta Mining Landscape, about halfway. Next is Annaberg-Frohnau Mining Landscape.

5. 5. Annaberg-Frohnau Mining Landscape

   Silver built Annaberg. In the late fifteenth century rich silver ore was found in the Erzgebirge, the Ore Mountains on the border between Saxony and Bohemia, and a town was founded almost overnight in 1496 to house the miners. Within a few decades Annaberg was one of the largest towns in Saxony, and its wealth paid for the St. Annenkirche, one of the most beautiful late Gothic hall churches in Germany, with slender pillars branching into a star-ribbed vault like the trunks of trees.

   Read the complete Annaberg-Frohnau Mining Landscape write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Annaberg-Frohnau Mining Landscape sits at 73 km, about halfway. Next is back through Lauta Mining Landscape.

6. 6. back through Lauta Mining Landscape

   Return visit. Read the place description above.

   Read the complete Lauta Mining Landscape write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   back through Lauta Mining Landscape comes up about 109 km into the recorded legs. Next is back through Ehrenfriedersdorf Mining Landscape.

7. 7. back through Ehrenfriedersdorf Mining Landscape

   Return visit. Read the place description above.

   Read the complete Ehrenfriedersdorf Mining Landscape write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   about 128 km into the recorded legs you reach back through Ehrenfriedersdorf Mining Landscape. Next is back through Marienberg Mining Town.

8. 8. back through Marienberg Mining Town

   Return visit. Read the place description above.

   Read the complete Marienberg Mining Town write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   back through Marienberg Mining Town, late in the day. Next is Grünthal Silver-Copper Liquation Works.

9. 9. Grünthal Silver-Copper Liquation Works

   Return visit. Read the place description above.

   Read the complete Grünthal Silver-Copper Liquation Works write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   The route ends here after 165 km.