Horní Slavkov Museum

The Horní Slavkov Museum is housed in a newly adapted Renaissance burgher 's house, No 211 Pluhova Street. It was opened as a branch of the Sokolov Regional Museum in 2001 with the very intensive support of the town of Horní Slavkov. A permanent exhibition presents the chief historical milestones and fields of human activity which have had a significant influence on the history of the town.

From the very outset, the chief motive force behind the town has been mining, particularly tin and later wolfram mining. Development was also influenced to a considerable extent by silver mining, which is now unjustifiably neglected, and after the Second World War by uranium mining. The mineralogical and geological sections of the exhibition are based on the fact that Horní Slavkov is one of the richest mineralogial sites in the world with some 400 classified mineral types. In this regard you can see some truly unique minerals such as carpholite, cassiterite, quartz, apatite, fluorite and fluellite. The exhibition also presents ore specimens and mining tool relics from various stages of historical development, particularly mining tool relics from the 16 th century, mining instruments and lanterns and objects relating to mining ethnography. The mineralogical specimens and mining heritage relics make highly attractive museum exhibits.

The most important craft production in the town was pewter work and porcelain manufacture, which are represented in the permanent exhibition by a number of products and specimens – tin plates, cups and other utilitarian objects were sometimes known as "poor man's silver". The first porcelain works in Bohemia went into operation in Slavkov in 1792. Its manufacture has gone down in the indelible history of the town and the annals of world porcelain production. The exhibition presents interesting specimens of its manufacture over the last 210 years.

Special attention should be devoted to the surrounding countryside, which is an integral part of the Slavkov Forest Protected Landscape Area and which is home to the large number of protected plant and animal species that live in this natural habitat. Noteworthy examples include the insectivorous sundews and arnica, which can be seen on the Protected Landscape Area logo.

A sad but very important chapter in the history of the town was the transition from a distinguished and architecturally imposing Renaissance mining town to the extensive devastation of its architectural heritage in the 1950s, which led to the quite unique obliteration of an entire urban heritage conservation area. The exhibition also presents these past architectural jewels of the town.

The exhibition also displays the unique open-hearth kitchen (or "black kitchen") on the ground floor of a burgher's house, although the brick kitchen stove beneath the chimney is missing. It is equipped with various token kitchen implements from the 16 th to the early 20 th century.