The Annaberg mining town is located on the western slope of the Pöhlberg (mountain) east of the Sehma river valley and is characterised by its urban layout adjusted to the topography of the northern slope of the Pöhlberg (mountain). Northwest of the town on the western bank of the Sehma river and on the hillside toe of the Schreckenberg (mountain) is the former village Frohnau and the Frohnauer Hammer (hammer mill). The Frohnau mining landscape above the village of Frohnau on the Schreckenberg (mountain) is characterized by an agricultural landscape on the mountain and a forest area at its slope down to the Sehma River valley where around 2 km down the river the adit mouth of the Markus Röhling mine is situated. The Sehma River functioned as a drainage outlet for all adits of the Frohnau and Buchholz mining landscapes as well as of the mines under the city of Annaberg.

This transformation of former agricultural land near Frohnau into a mining area was closely connected with the systematic search for new ore deposits in the upper parts of the Ore Mountains, prompted by the temporary decay of the mines in the Freiberg region in the second mining phase. Rich deposits of silver ore (especially the discovery of silver at the Schreckenberg (mountain) in 1491 and argentiferous copper ore at the eastern slope of the Pöhlberg (mountain) led to the foundation of the mining settlement of Annaberg as a planned mining town in the late 15th and early 16th centuries in the direct vicinity of the new silver strikes. Beginning in the 18th century, the emphasis in the exploitation of ores shifted to cobalt for the cobalt ‘smalt’ works.

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