Pöhlberg Mining Landscape and Jáchymov Mining Landscape
Plan this ride
Recorded distance
104 km
Riding-time estimate
2 h 01
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.
From Annaberg-Buchholz it runs 104 km to Annaberg-Buchholz; allow about 2 h 01 of riding. The stops in between: Mědník Hill Mining Landscape, Jáchymov Mining Landscape and back through Mědník Hill Mining Landscape. It crosses from Germany into Czechia - carry ID and check vignette or toll rules.
Waypoint introductions and full write-ups
1. Pöhlberg Mining Landscape
The Pöhlberg is a basalt cone that stands up from the high Ore Mountains like a bump on a bedspread, and Annaberg-Buchholz lies at its feet. Both belong to the Erzgebirge mining region, which UNESCO listed in 2019 after eight centuries of digging for silver, tin, cobalt and later uranium. Annaberg was founded in the 1490s after a silver strike, and for a few decades it was among the richest places in Saxony. The money is still visible in the town's great late-Gothic hall church, St Anne's, whose tall, ribbed interior feels more like a cathedral than a parish church, and whose altar carvings were paid for by miners and mine owners hoping for luck underground.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Pöhlberg Mining Landscape 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 29 km into the recorded legs. Next is Jáchymov Mining Landscape.
3. Jáchymov Mining Landscape
The word dollar comes from this small town in the Ore Mountains. In the early sixteenth century, the silver mines of Jáchymov, then called Joachimsthal, were among the richest in Europe, and the coins minted here were called Joachimsthaler, shortened to thaler, which became daler and eventually dollar. The town grew rapidly, with thousands of miners, and it is now one component of the World Heritage inscription for the Erzgebirge mining region, shared between the Czech Republic and Germany. Its later history is darker and stranger.