Archaeologists and mechanical engineers from the University of West Bohemia (ZČU) are studying the remains of the extensive Sauersack mining and ore-processing complex in the Ore Mountains near the abandoned village of Rolava in the Karlovy Vary Region. The aim is to record its present state in detail and, on the basis of archive documents and field data, to create a virtual three-dimensional reconstruction of the complex in its present and historical form.[1][2] The four-year project is funded through the Ministry of Education from the Operational Programme Jan Amos Comenius (Zdivočelá země) and is to run for two more years.[2]
Working methods
Archaeologist Petr Hasil said that the project documentation from the State Regional Archives in Plzeň shows how the enterprise was meant to look originally but does not capture its actual state. The team therefore looks for deviations from the documentation. It uses multi-image photogrammetry and mobile and laser terrestrial 3D scanners, but most time is taken by classic archaeological research with shovel and pickaxe.[1][2] University staff managed to pump the water out of the boiler house, which was deliberately flooded at the end of the 1940s and is now accessible again for the first time. The team also documents remains of machinery, for example a winding winch, and surveys the buildings and other objects of the complex.[1][2]
According to Jan Hlaváč from the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering of ZČU, the role of the engineers is supporting: they describe what the machines were used for and how they worked, and create three-dimensional models of them. According to him, the machines crushed the mined ore and separated the surrounding rock, and the prepared material was transported elsewhere for processing. One result is to be a model that will allow a walk through the complex in virtual reality.[1][2]
History of the complex
The complex was built from 1939 in connection with tin mining. In the interwar period the deposit proved to be of low yield and mining was not profitable, but investment in it continued during the war. According to Hasil, a major technological rebuilding took place in 1943. Ore processing ended in May 1945, and operation ceased entirely in 1947. Because the mine lies in the border zone, the place has been completely abandoned only since the 1990s.[1][2]
According to the archaeologists, Sauersack was also a prisoner-of-war camp. Besides experts with foreign experience and workers from surrounding villages, hundreds of prisoners of war worked there, at first from the French army, later predominantly prisoners from the Soviet Union. Mainly reinforced-concrete structures, machinery foundations, hoppers with remains of unprocessed ore and a thickening tank have survived; the wooden parts of the plant have mostly disappeared.[1]
Hasil added that archaeologists from ZČU are studying other complexes in the region as well, among others facilities that served the processing of uranium ore, mainly in the 1950s. Ore mining in the Ore Mountains has a tradition going back to the end of the 15th century and reached its greatest boom in the 16th century.[1]
Related articles: Karlovy Vary Region, Sauersack, Západočeská univerzita v Plzni
Chronology
- — A team of archaeologists and engineers from the University of West Bohemia is documenting the remains of the Sauersack mining complex near the abandoned village of Rolava in the Ore Mountains in the Karlovy Vary Region and is creating a virtual three-dimensional model of it. Deník: Karlovarský kraj Karlovarská Drbna
Sources
- Deník: Karlovarský kraj — 5 October 2026
- Karlovarská Drbna — 6 October 2026