For technical monuments
They are a testimony to the difficult way forward, to the desire to always push development a little further and higher. Most of Příbram's technical monuments are united by their mining history - but also by the remarkable skill, ingenuity and determination of our ancestors.
1. JEWEL OF CZECH TECHNOLOGY
From the historical, technical and architectural point of view, the Anna Mine is one of the most important Czech mining monuments. Next to the main shaft building, which is a typical example of industrial architecture, there is a machine room with a Breitfeld-Daněk steam mining machine from 1914. It was designed for direct transport from a depth of 1,450 metres at speeds of up to 12 m/s. With its 750 horsepower, it was and is an extremely important work of Czech technology.
In addition to a ride on the mine train to the Prokop pit, the deepest shaft in the Brzeg Mountains, you can also visit another work of high technical value in the Anna Mine area - the chamber of the 16-metre high Anna Mine water wheel, which was located 44 metres below the surface of the ground and was part of a unique water system.
THE2ND INDUSTRIAL LANDMARK OF THE BIRCH MOUNTAINS
The Ševčinský mine is a remarkable technical monument and a dominant feature of the Birch Mountains. The almost 40-metre high shaft building, dominated by a wooden tower with a gallery, was built in 1879 in the Malakov style of industrial architecture, which consists of a combination of burnt brick and stone. Inside, there is an exhibition of drilling technology and vertical mining transport. In the adjacent engine room there is another technical monument, a mining piston compressor from 1928, and a fire sprinkler of the Mining Directorate from 1885.
A variety of mining equipment from the second half of the 20th century completes the Ševčinský Mine complex. From the mine courtyard, a mining train also runs along a 230 m long route towards the Vojtěch Mine. This unique technical attraction is a partial reconstruction of the historical railway that existed here in 1884.
3. 1 000 METRES OF VERTICAL DEPTH
The Vojtěch Mine was one of the main and economically most important mines in the Březohorské ore district; in 1875, a world-first vertical depth of 1,000 metres was achieved here using a single mining rope. The present shaft building, built in the pseudo-Romantic style under the influence of German late Gothic architecture, represents another of the important industrial buildings of Březské Hory.
A remarkable technical and aesthetically very valuable monument is the steam engine of the Czech company Breitfeld-Daněk, manufactured in 1873 and modernised in 1888-1889. The power of the machine reached 500 horsepower and it transported two two-weight cages at a maximum speed of 9.5 m/s, while the hauling rope could be used up to a depth of 1,300 metres.
4. A WATERWHEEL OF INTERNATIONAL IMPORTANCE
The Drkolnov mine is a technical monument of international importance. The water wheel, which was an integral part of a complex of waterworks - water reservoirs, channels, intake and outlet galleries - has been preserved in its interior. The 12.4 metre diameter water wheel was used to pump groundwater and was put into operation around 1850. At the end of the 19th century, the original wooden wheel was replaced by a new iron one. Although the ore reserves in the Drkolnov mine proved unprospective, the wheel pumped drinking water for the town of Příbram until 1961. Thanks to this, it can be admired to this day.
5. THE FORGOTTEN CABLE CAR
The ore processing plant at Březové Hory also received ore from the nearby Bohutín mines. In 1935, a cableway connected the two places, transporting coal in the opposite direction for the needs of the Bohutín boiler house. The cableway was 3.3 km long and the carriage carried 420 kg of ore or 160 kg of coal. In the Litavka Forest Park, you can still find the remains of this forgotten cable car - just a few metres from the road, four concrete plinths, sunk into the ground, on which the poles of the cable car were erected, can be seen in elevated places.
THE6TH REVOLUTION IN TRANSPORT
The first train pulled by a steam locomotive greeted the city on 19 December 1875. The two-storey railway station building built on the western outskirts of Pribram witnessed this glorious event. The façade with a decorative gable in the middle is characterised by a symmetrical design with typical architectural details similar to industrial buildings of the time. The building has survived almost unchanged and is an impressive example of the architecture of railway buildings from the last third of the 19th century.
