Jáchymov

Jáchymov, known in German as Joachimsthal, grew around rich silver deposits in the Ore Mountains. Steffan Schlick founded the settlement in 1516, four years after silver was found, and its rapid growth enriched his family. Coins struck from the local silver were called Joachimsthalers; their shortened name, thaler, would eventually give rise to the word dollar. By 1534 the mining town was second only to Prague in population within Bohemia.

Ferdinand I seized the mining rights from the Schlicks in 1528. The town's mines and smelting works attracted the physician Georgius Agricola, whose observations informed his pioneering studies of metallurgy. Protestantism took root, but the restoration of Catholicism in 1621 drove many Lutheran inhabitants toward Saxony. Warfare, difficulty pumping water from deep mines and competition from Spanish American silver weakened the industry.