Pribram Mining Museum

Pribram has been mined since the Middle Ages and the Brezove Hory field produced silver on a scale that made it one of the most important in the Habsburg lands; in 1875 the Vojtech shaft here became the first in the world to pass a thousand metres, which was an international event at the time. The museum occupies the surface buildings of several shafts with their headframes, winding engines and workshops intact, and it is the largest mining museum in the Czech Republic. Visitors go underground on the Prokop and Vojtech levels, ride a mine train, and see the Anna adit. The uranium era after 1945 is covered too. The Marian pilgrimage complex of Svata Hora stands on the hill above the town.

History

The museum continues two 19th-century institutions: part of the collections of the mining works' own museum, above all its minerals, was open to the public from 1852, and the Regional Museum in Příbram was founded on 12 December 1886 thanks to the school director Ladislav Malý, collecting mining history from the start. Jiří Majer, head of the mining section of the National Technical Museum in Prague, proposed saving the main mining structures for a museum after the mines closed, and the National Technical Museum took over the works collections and the former office building at the Ševčinský Shaft; from 1963 the museum was part of the Regional Museum. Only part of the plans of the 1970s was carried out, and two shafts deteriorated, but from the early 1990s the Ševčinský and St Anne shafts were rebuilt, the St Anne Shaft keeping a steam winder of 1914, the St Adalbert Shaft was bought and opened to the public in 2000 after reconstruction, and since 1998 the St Prokop Adit has been used for the museum, with its mine train (Wikipedia, Mining Museum Příbram).

What to look for

• The first shaft past a thousand metres - Vojtech, reached in 1875.
• Headframes and winding engines - surface plant of several shafts intact.
• Underground routes and a mine train - the Prokop and Vojtech levels.
• The uranium era documented - the mines of the decades after 1945.

When to go

April to October. A day.

Practical notes

Underground routes are guided, timed and cool - book ahead in summer. The site is large and spread over several shafts. Some sections have age restrictions.

Nearby

Svata Hora is on the hill above; the Brdy highlands are west.

Key facts