Johanngeorgenstadt is a mining town the Saxon Ore Mountains near the border with the Czech Republic.

Understand

Founded in the 17th century by religious refugees from Bohemia, this town has a long mining tradition, from tin and iron to uranium. Pitchblende from here was used to discover the element of uranium and after World War II the SDAG Wismut (a deliberately deceptive name meaning "Bismuth", a harmless metal they definitely weren't after) searched for Uranium here and mined it in such a destructive fashion that large parts of the old town had to be torn down. The town immediately borders the Czech Republic and thanks to the Schengen Treaty you can simply walk across the border if you so chose.

Get in

By train

• 1 Bahnhof Johanngeorgenstadt. The train station sees hourly service from Zwickau and several daily trains from Karlovy Vary. Unfortunately, plans to have trains continue between both cities have never materialized and thus you'd have to change here if heading from Zwickau to the West Bohemian Spa Triangle. The line to Karlovy Vary twists and turns through a stunning mountain landscape and is known in the Czech Republic as the "Krušnohorský Semmering" ("Ore Mountain Semmering") after the famous Austrian mountain railway.  

See

• 1 Weihnachtspyramide (Christmas Pyramid). A Christmas pyramid on year-round display. At 25.52 m (83.7 ft) it claims to be the highest in the world (updated Feb 2020)
• 2 Frisch Glück Show Mine (Lehr- & Schaubergwerk Frisch Glück "Glöckl"), Wittigsthalstr. 13-15 08349, ☏ +49 3773 882140, gloeckl@frisch-glueck.de. (updated Feb 2020)
• 3 Stadtkirche. The original church was built in the 1650s by Bohemian religious refugees who had to flee when the Habsburgs imposed mandatory Catholicism on their homeland. It burned down in 1867 and the current church is a neo-Gothic church from the 1870s. (updated Aug 2021)

Sleep

The town charges a "Gästetaxe" of €1 per day for all who stay here. In exchange you'll get a guest card which gives you a rebate in many venues in and around town.

• 1 Hotel Pension Am Wäldchen, Eibenstocker Straße 66 A 08349, ☏ +49 3773 88 28 89. (updated Feb 2020)
• 2 Wander- und Sportpension "Edelweiß", Jugelstraße 18 08349, ☏ +49 3773 88 27 23, pensionedelweiss@aol.com. (updated Feb 2020)

Go next

If you're coming from the German side, why not hop across the border to the Czech Republic? Karlovy Vary, one of the three corners of the West Bohemian Spa Triangle is only an hour away across a gorgeous mountain railway.