Marienberg Mining Town and Eibenstock Mining Landscape
Plan this ride
Recorded distance
188 km
Riding-time estimate
3 h 38
Journey
Recorded itinerary
Distance and timing basis
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.
188 km from Marienberg to Marienberg, about 3 h 38 of riding. On the way it passes Mědník Hill Mining Landscape, Erzgebirge/Krušnohoří Mining Region, Eibenstock Mining Landscape and back through Erzgebirge/Krušnohoří Mining Region. It crosses from Germany into Czechia - carry ID and check vignette or toll rules. It was put together for the scenery rather than the shortest line.
Waypoint introductions and full write-ups
1. 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.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Marienberg Mining Town is where the day begins. Next is Mědník Hill Mining Landscape.
2. Mědník Hill Mining Landscape
Mědník is a small, steep hill on the Czech side of the Ore Mountains, or Krušné hory, the range that forms the border between Bohemia and Saxony. It rises above the village of Měděnec, whose name, like the hill's, comes from the Czech word for copper. For centuries, miners tunnelled into the hill for copper and iron ore, and the hill is now part of the Erzgebirge/Krušnohoří Mining Region, inscribed by UNESCO in 2019 as a cross-border site.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Mědník Hill Mining Landscape comes up about 40 km into the recorded legs. Next is Erzgebirge/Krušnohoří Mining Region.
3. Erzgebirge/Krušnohoří Mining Region
The word dollar comes from these hills. In the early sixteenth century, a silver rush at Joachimsthal, today's Jáchymov, made the town one of the largest in Bohemia, and the coins minted there, the Joachimsthaler, shortened to thaler, gave their name to currencies around the world. The Erzgebirge, or Krušné hory, the Ore Mountains on the Czech-German border, were mined for silver, tin, cobalt, iron and finally uranium for eight centuries, and the Erzgebirge/Krušnohoří Mining Region was inscribed on the UNESCO list in 2019.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
about 64 km into the recorded legs you reach Erzgebirge/Krušnohoří Mining Region. Next is Eibenstock Mining Landscape.
4. Eibenstock Mining Landscape
Eibenstock sits high in the western Erzgebirge, at about six hundred metres above the sea, in a country of spruce forests and cold, clear streams. It owes its origins to tin: miners worked the tin deposits here from the Middle Ages, and the mining landscape around the town, with old spoil heaps, shafts and water channels, is part of the Erzgebirge/Krušnohoří Mining Region, which UNESCO recognised in 2019. Today, the traces are quiet, softened by moss and birch.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Marienberg Mining Town closes the day.
Leg by leg
Marienberg Mining Town to Mědník Hill Mining Landscape
Marienberg Mining Town → Mědník Hill Mining Landscape is 40 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Mědník Hill Mining Landscape to Erzgebirge/Krušnohoří Mining Region
Mědník Hill Mining Landscape → Erzgebirge/Krušnohoří Mining Region is 24 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Erzgebirge/Krušnohoří Mining Region to Eibenstock Mining Landscape
Erzgebirge/Krušnohoří Mining Region → Eibenstock Mining Landscape is 30 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Eibenstock Mining Landscape to back through Erzgebirge/Krušnohoří Mining Region
Eibenstock Mining Landscape → back through Erzgebirge/Krušnohoří Mining Region is 31 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Erzgebirge/Krušnohoří Mining Region to back through Mědník Hill Mining Landscape
back through Erzgebirge/Krušnohoří Mining Region → back through Mědník Hill Mining Landscape is 24 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Mědník Hill Mining Landscape to Marienberg Mining Town
back through Mědník Hill Mining Landscape → Marienberg Mining Town is 40 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.