Erzgebirge/Krušnohoří Mining Region

Eight centuries of digging for metal shaped every valley of the Ore Mountains, which straddle the Saxon-Czech border. Silver made the region Europe's leading source of that metal between 1460 and 1560 and financed handsome mining towns; tin followed, and by the late 19th century the mountains had turned to uranium. Water-management systems, smelters, shafts and whole townscapes survive from the 12th through the 20th century, and UNESCO inscribed this deeply worked cultural landscape as a World Heritage Site in 2019.