CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Ordered leg totals agree within rounding. Stop distances are approximate sums of rounded legs. Stops, delays, approach and any separate return travel add time. Basis: producer-declared routed record.
Reading history stays on this device. My road watch requires a separate selection; opening it does not subscribe this ride.
Distance and riding time are measured on the routed road. Check local closures and conditions before you ride.
From Krupka it runs 340 km to Krupka; allow about 6 h 35 of riding. It goes by way of Dippoldiswalde Medieval Silver Mines, Grünthal Silver-Copper Liquation Works, Annaberg-Frohnau Mining Landscape and The Red Tower of Death. It crosses from Czechia into Germany - carry ID and check vignette or toll rules. It suits an unhurried touring pace.
Krupka is a hillside mining town stuck to the foot of the Ore Mountains, and it wears its history quietly. The town sits a short climb above the plain near Teplice and Ústí nad Labem in the north of Bohemia, with the ridge of the Krušné hory rising behind. Tin was dug here for a very long time, and the shafts and spoil heaps scattered around the slopes are what UNESCO recognised in 2019 when it listed the Ore Mountains mining region, a landscape shared with Saxony on the German side. Marienberg, on the far side of the border, belongs to the same story.
Read the complete Krupka Mining Landscape write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Krupka Mining Landscape is where the day begins. Next is Dippoldiswalde Medieval Silver Mines.
In 2008, when parts of the old town of Dippoldiswalde began to subside, engineers investigating the problem found something nobody expected: a network of medieval silver mines running beneath the streets, dating back to the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. The tunnels contained remarkably well preserved wooden ladders, tools and even shoes, offering an unparalleled glimpse of mining at the start of the Ore Mountains' silver boom. These finds are part of the Erzgebirge/Krušnohoří Mining Region listed by UNESCO in 2019.
Read the complete Dippoldiswalde Medieval Silver Mines write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Dippoldiswalde Medieval Silver Mines comes up about 39 km into the recorded legs. Next is 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.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 95 km into the recorded legs you reach Grünthal Silver-Copper Liquation Works. Next is 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.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Annaberg-Frohnau Mining Landscape, about halfway. Next is The Red Tower of Death.
The name sounds like a horror film, and the reality was grim enough. In the 1950s, the communist government of Czechoslovakia sent tens of thousands of political prisoners to labour camps in the Jáchymov region to mine uranium for the Soviet nuclear programme. In a red brick building near Ostrov, known as the Red Tower of Death, prisoners crushed and sorted uranium ore by hand, without protection, exposed to dust and radiation. Many died or suffered lasting illness. The building is now a memorial, part of the Erzgebirge/Krušnohoří Mining Region World Heritage listing, and a powerful reminder of the human cost of the Cold War.
Read the complete The Red Tower of Death write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The Red Tower of Death sits at 159 km, about halfway. Next is back through Annaberg-Frohnau Mining Landscape.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Annaberg-Frohnau Mining Landscape write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Annaberg-Frohnau Mining Landscape comes up about 211 km into the recorded legs. Next is back through Grünthal Silver-Copper Liquation Works.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Grünthal Silver-Copper Liquation Works write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 249 km into the recorded legs you reach back through Grünthal Silver-Copper Liquation Works. Next is back through Dippoldiswalde Medieval Silver Mines.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Dippoldiswalde Medieval Silver Mines write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Dippoldiswalde Medieval Silver Mines, late in the day. Next is Krupka Mining Landscape.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Krupka Mining Landscape write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The route ends here after 340 km.
Krupka Mining Landscape → Dippoldiswalde Medieval Silver Mines is 39 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Dippoldiswalde Medieval Silver Mines → Grünthal Silver-Copper Liquation Works is 56 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Grünthal Silver-Copper Liquation Works → Annaberg-Frohnau Mining Landscape is 37 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Annaberg-Frohnau Mining Landscape → The Red Tower of Death is 39 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
The Red Tower of Death → back through Annaberg-Frohnau Mining Landscape is 40 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Annaberg-Frohnau Mining Landscape → back through Grünthal Silver-Copper Liquation Works is 38 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Grünthal Silver-Copper Liquation Works → back through Dippoldiswalde Medieval Silver Mines is 50 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Dippoldiswalde Medieval Silver Mines → Krupka Mining Landscape is 42 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.