Visited:12. 9. 2021
History:These Renaissance cellars began to be built after the great fire that struck the town of Jirkov in 1555. They were probably built at the instigation of the then owner of the estate, Christopher of Karlovice, to store important documents and foodstuffs. The adit thus minted was called a long cellar. At the same time, however, since this man was also the upper governor of Jáchymov, he sensed an opportunity here and had the extraction of stone slate started here, which was mainly exported abroad. This mining started in 1556. The first written mention of these extensive cellars dates back to 1596, when, according to sources, the cellars had up to 150 compartments and were gradually connected to the neighbouring mine. During the Thirty Years' War, the town was essentially burnt down, but the cellars were essentially untouched by these events. Throughout history, the cellars were then used by the local brewery to age beer in addition to hiding documents and local treasures. The mine itself continued to operate until the 1730s when mining ceased. At the beginning of the 1940s, the mine was closed. In the 1940s, the owners of the local cellars sold them to the local brewery. During World War II, the Wehrmacht became aware of this underground complex and began to build its headquarters and air-raid shelter here with the help of forced labour. Despite these changes, the original cellars have retained their original Renaissance appearance to this day. In total, these cellars had a total length of 1260 m. Unfortunately, in 2006, during the construction of the Tesco department store, a large part of these unique corridors were destroyed, reducing the total length to 850 m. In 2003, a fireman fell into the local corridors and it was considered to have the local corridors filled in, so thanks to the initiative of local activists and Speleo, the unique local complex was preserved to the present day and in 2005 it was opened to visitors for the first time
Source:https://www.jirkov.cz/volny-cas/pamatky/mestske-sklepy/
Source of interior photos:https://www.jirkov.cz/volny-cas/pamatky/mestske-sklepy/
Impressions:Beautiful unique cellars, where I unfortunately did not have the opportunity to peek, as I was here when it was already closed. So I took the liberty of borrowing photos of the interior.
