JÁCHYMOV THROUGH INTERESTING DATES

1300 – The first written mention of the village appears in connection with the colonization activity of the Premonstratensian Monastery in Teplá, when the settlement of Conradsgrün was founded with an iron hammer and insignificant silver mining.

1516 – The town of Jáchymov was founded on the ruins of the vanished Conradsgrün after a large silver deposit was discovered. Štěpán Šlik became the founder, and the Šlik family initiated silver mining, with 400 houses built near the mines.

1517 – The town was renamed "Valley of St. Joachim / Sankt Joachimsthal." From 1517 Count Štěpán Šlik and his brothers held sovereignty over the entire "valley."

1519 – The first Jáchymov silver thaler (Joachimstaler) was minted, weighing about a troy ounce. The Jáchymov thaler gave its name to all thalers (Taler) and subsequently to the dollar.

1520 – The Šlik family, to whom Jáchymov belonged as a pledge estate, was granted the right to mint coins. Jáchymov was elevated to a free mining town by King Louis II of Hungary. Above the town, the Šlik family built the Freudenstein Castle, intended to protect the town.

1525 – The Svornost Mine is the oldest continuously operated mine in Europe and was the first and long the only mine in the world to extract radium. During WWII, uranium mining took place here, employing Soviet POWs. Under Communist rule, political and other prisoners were primarily used as labor in these mines.

1528 – The town had no owner after Štěpán Šlik was declared dead, and the new Czech King Ferdinand I reclaimed the minting privilege under the exclusive control of the Crown. The Šlik family continued minting coins as royal agents until 1528 the Šlik thaler minting ceased.

1535 – About 1200 houses and approximately 18,000 residents made Jáchymov the second most populous city in the Kingdom of Bohemia.

1540 – The Saxon Noblemen’s Adit, today’s Bratrství Adit, was constructed.

Year 1547 After losing the war against the Habsburgs, the Šlik family lost all their rights to Jáchymov.

1601 – The town declined after the main silver reserves were depleted, and the number of houses fell below 500. Many temporary miners' dwellings disappeared, and the population dropped to about 2000.

1621 – Following defeat at the Battle of White Mountain, Joachim Andreas Šlik (great-grandson of the town’s founder) was executed in Prague’s Old Town Square. In the same year, the re-Catholicization of the town began, leading to many Protestant residents and miners emigrating to nearby Saxony.

1634 – Freudenstein Castle (Šlik’s Castle) was damaged by artillery fire and burned down during the Swedish army's siege of the town.

1792 – The current Rovnost Mine was founded under the name Rudolf's Pit (after Emperor Rudolf II). The name "Rovnost" was introduced after WWII, with the formation of the Rovnost I mining company under the Jáchymov Mines enterprise.

19th century – The town served as the seat of the district administration, district court, and mining and smelting administration. At that time, mining remained relatively significant, carried out by both state and private companies. Besides silver, nickel, bismuth, and uranium ore were also mined. The town also housed a royal and imperial tobacco factory employing around 1000 women, glove manufacturing, a cork factory producing stoppers, and bobbin lace-making. On March 31, 1873, the town was nearly destroyed by fire.

1898 – Marie and Pierre Curie succeeded in discovering the highly radioactive element radium 1905 Viennese physicists discovered that the mine water contained radon – a gaseous decay product of radium. 1910 Marie Curie-Skłodowska successfully isolated radium together with polonium from the waste material of Jáchymov's uranium dye factory. 1925 Marie Curie-Skłodowska visited this fateful town, descending into the Svornost Mine, where radon-rich springs rise. She toured the spa, expressed interest in medical applications of radium, and opposed some of its uses. 1934 She herself suffered from health issues due to radioactivity, which likely contributed to the illness that led to her death.

1906 – The world's first radon spa was established in Jáchymov, where the miraculous mine water alleviated pain, refreshed the body, and promoted healing. Visitors enjoyed radon baths, radium compresses, radiation exposure, and radon injections. The local brewery brewed Radium-Beer, and the soda factory bottled Radium-Perle. As a souvenir, cured guests could take home St. Joachimsthal Radium-Soap from the local soap factory. Anything radioactive was "in."

1939 - 1962 – Uranium ore mines were constructed or reconstructed (mines containing uraninite – Svornost, Rovnost, Bratrství, Mariánská, Eduard, etc.), and uranium extraction primarily served the nuclear projects of the Nazis and later the Communists, extracting about 8000 tons of uranium. Under Nazi occupation and later socialism, labor camps were established at these mines, where prisoners (especially political ones) served as cheap labor. Despite mining development, the town’s urbanism declined. In 1930 , Jáchymov had 926 houses and 5,954 inhabitants; by 1991 , it had 622 houses and 2,456 inhabitants. Many valuable historical buildings were lost, while others fell into disrepair. Today, except for Svornost, the mines are no longer operational. The Eduard mine area now hosts a sports complex with a biathlon shooting range.

1957 Jáchymov lost its railway line to nearby Ostrov, which had been built in 1896.

1993 – Jáchymov was home to a test trolleybus track, where trolleybuses manufactured by Škoda in Ostrov were tested. After Škoda ceased production, 2004 the track was dismantled.