The Silver Ribbon through the Ore Mountains links historic mining towns, magnificent hall churches and more than 30 visitor mines, bringing more than 800 years of mining history to life.
Saxon-Bohemian Silver Road
Experience 800 years of mining culture comfortably by car
Discover the Ore Mountains along the Silver Road, which connects towns and sites of centuries-old silver mining over a length of 275 km, the diversity of which is unrivaled anywhere else in Germany!
If you travel through the Ore Mountains, you will still encounter the customs of the miners everywhere. The hearty "Glück auf" that you hear here is the best proof of this. The best way to find out where it has its roots is to visit one of the many show mines.
Nowhere else in Germany can you find so much evidence of mining from the Middle Ages and early modern times, so many buildings and works of art with a mining connection as in the Ore Mountains. They form a cultural landscape that is unique in Europe and for which the region is striving for the World Heritage title.
More than 800 years ago, the people of the Ore Mountains discovered that their soil was rich in ore and they set about extracting this valuable treasure. Countless tunnels and shafts, hammer mills and smelting works were built. Gradually, a modern industrial region developed and thousands of people followed its call. With the new wealth, magnificent towns were built, for example Marienberg - a town designed entirely on the drawing board - or the mining town of Freiberg, the silver town par excellence. Magnificent religious buildings were also erected, such as Freiberg Cathedral, St. Anne's Church in Annaberg-Buchholz and St. Wolfgang's Church in Schneeberg, which are still among the most important cultural monuments in Germany today.
Witnesses to the various mining eras line up like pearls on a string along the Saxon-Bohemian Silver Route. Stretching some 275 kilometers between Zwickau and Dresden and across the border to the Czech Republic, the old trade route impressively demonstrates what everyday life must have been like back then. Mills, copper hammers, Adam Ries' first calculating school and Silbermann organs are just a small part of the attractions awaiting inquisitive visitors in the Ore Mountains.
Mining set the pace for a very long time. This gave rise to the Christmas tradition and craftsmanship of the Erzgebirge, as well as customs and traditions that are still alive today and can be experienced most intensely during Advent. During these days, festive fanfare sounds accompany the miners as they parade in their magnificent traditional costumes.
