Guided Walking Tours

Eighteen gulag-type mining camps were established in Bohemia between 1949 and 1953. These camps were quickly filled with prisoners who served as a cheep source of labor fulfilling the most dangerous mining jobs deep underground and in processing plants in nearby facilities. The prisoners were referred to as MUKLs (an acronym of the Czech phrase „Muž Určený K Likvidaci,“ meaning „man designated for liquidation) and, at least one mine, as „merchandise parcels.“

Archival records prove that more than 65,000 prisoners, as well as several thousand POWs, were subjected to the misery and abuse of camp life. In less than 12 years, those prisoners mined and processed nearly 8,000 tons of uranium ore from sites in and around Jáchymov, digging a staggering 1,102.9km of tunnels through the dense, metallic rock of the region in the process—largely without the aid of mechanical equipment.

With the cooperation of the local community, the Political Prisoners Association (Političtí vězni.cz), has built a nature trail that leads around Jáchymov and commemorates the lives of thousands of political prisoners who were enslaved in the region’s mines.

The Jáchymov Hell nature trail is 8.5 km long. There are 12 informational stops along its route, including stops at several former mining sites before ending at the Řetízkárna.