This video was created as part of the project "Zdař God, World Heritage", supported by the European Union within the Cooperation Program Czech Republic - Free State of Saxony 2014-2020. Screenplay, direction: Michal Urban Camera: Petr Mikšíček, Philipp Nosák Drone: Petr Jakubes, Petr Mikšíček Editing: Philipp Nosák Animation, graphics: Martin Strnad Commentary: Miloslav Mejzlík Sound mix: Michal Stolička Mining region Erzgebirge/Krušnohoří – a UNESCO World Heritage Site looking at the world map, it's just a dot, and they don't even take up much space on the map of Europe. With its length of 130 kilometers and the highest mountain, Klínovec, rising to a height of only 1,244 meters, the Ore Mountains definitely do not belong to large mountain ranges. Nevertheless, there is no other mountain range in the world that is as important for the development of mining and metallurgy as the Ore Mountains. They can thank for this the huge ore wealth that they received in the wine from Mother Nature. Almost all metals known to the Middle Ages and the early modern period were obtained here. Thanks to its ore wealth, this mountain range also got its name Erzgebirge - Rudohoří. Even the later Czech name Krušná hory is related to mining, the verb krušit means to crush ore. The exceptional contribution of the Ore Mountains to world mining is the reason why the Erzgebirge/Krušnohoří Mining Region was inscribed on the UNESCO World Cultural and Natural Heritage List in 2019 as a joint heritage of the Czech Republic and the Free State of Saxony. The exceptional world value of the Ore Mountains What makes the Ore Mountains so exceptional in the world that they found themselves alongside such monuments as the pyramids in Giza, the acropolis in Athens or the historical core of Prague? There are three main reasons: First, dozens of new technologies and scientific knowledge were born in the Ore Mountains thanks to mining, which were later successfully applied all over the world. Inventions in the field of mining water pumping or ore processing were absolutely essential. Second, in the Ore Mountains, the backward mining operations of the Middle Ages were transformed for the first time in the world into a large-scale, centrally controlled industry with early capitalist elements, setting the course for the later Industrial Revolution. The central system of mining administration established in the Ore Mountains became a model for other mining regions on the European continent and had a far-reaching influence on the emergence of specific traditions that still form the basis of the unique Ore Mountains culture. And thirdly, the Ore Mountains are a unique, even on a global scale, unique example of a cross-border cultural landscape that was formed from the 12th to the 20th century by the mining and processing of an unusually wide range of ores, especially silver, tin, cobalt, iron and uranium. Well-preserved mining monuments above and below ground testify to the use of all the main methods of mining and processing ores from the late Middle Ages to the recent past. 2 countries – 1 heritage – 22 parts – 800 years of mining The Erzgebirge/Ore Mountains World Heritage Site consists of 22 parts, which together demonstrate its exceptional world value. Five of these components are located in the Czech Ore Mountains and seventeen in Saxony. At the same time, these are individual monuments or groups of buildings and technological units, but most often large landscape areas. All these components were selected to best represent the most important areas of mining and ore processing and the individual mining periods of the Ore Mountains. They also represent other mining monuments in the entire region. 1. mining fever Archaeological evidence shows that tin ores were mined in the Ore Mountains already in the Bronze Age 4,000 years ago. It took nearly 3,000 years before silver ores were first found near today's Freiberg in 1168. In this way, the first mining fever started in the hitherto almost deserted mountain range on the border of Bohemia and Saxony, which laid the foundation for the settlement of the Ore Mountains and their future glory. Only a little later, rice miners also discovered tin ore deposits in the alluvium of streams and rivers. At first only at the foot of the mountains, as was already the case near Krupka in the 13th century, but as panning progressed to the higher parts of the mountain range, primary deposits of tin were also discovered and the settlement began to rise higher into the mountains. Monasteries, such as the Cistercian monasteries of Altzella and Osek in the eastern part of the Ore Mountains or the Cistercian monastery of Waldsassen and the Premonstratensian monastery in Teplá in the west, which became centers of not only agricultural but also mining colonization of the area, also had a great merit in this. Since there was no fixed border between Bohemia and Saxony at that time, mining activity usually sp