Local tips
Eliášova dědičná štola (Úsilné)
Autem 12 min
Eliášova štola is a technical trace of the silver mines near Rudolfov and shows how big a problem groundwater was for miners. They drove a three-kilometre gallery for almost two hundred years to drain flooded workings. The mines themselves died out, but water from the gallery was used as drinking water for Budějovice centuries later.
Eliášova dědičná štola in Úsilné is a three-kilometre passage under the village, started on 20 July 1574 to drain flooded silver mines near Rudolfov. It did not save them — work continued as mining was already declining. Three and a half centuries later drinking water flowed from it to České Budějovice. The first 350 metres can be visited with a guide, by phone appointment.
Practical details
- Autem 12 min
- Opening hours: bez pevné otevírací doby — jen na předchozí telefonické objednání
On site
The tour runs under the built-up part of the village to the fourth ventilation shaft and no further — in explored sections the ground is unstable, with faults and collapses. The walls show hand-work clearly: the passage is not smooth, with regular grooves from pick and hammer, each from one blow. Water runs on the floor — exactly what the whole gallery was for. At the entrance stands a fountain with a donkey, symbol of Úsilné.
Grooves show best on unplastered sections when lit at a sharp angle with a torch. One simple count: three kilometres in two hundred years is on average under fifteen metres a year — with long periods when nothing was dug at all. (That average is from length and driving time, not from a source.)