The Ehrenfriedersdorf Mining Landscape is situated 13 km west of Marienberg and 8 km north of Annaberg east and above of the town Ehrenfriedersdorf on the Sauberg (mountain) and with its Röhrgraben (ditch) circumventing the urban structures of Ehrenfriedersdorf and including the area of the Greifensteine (mountain).
Several kilometres north of Marienberg near the village of Ehrenfriedersdorf, a miners’ settlement was founded around 1230 which led to the development of one of the oldest German tin mining landscapes with a continuous history of exploitation up to the end of the 20th century. Placer mining was followed by opencast and underground mining at the Sauberg (mountain). As early as the late 14th century the Röhrgraben (ditch) was built for the supply of water for tin mining and processing. Since the middle of the 19th century the Haupt und Richtschacht (main and pilot shaft) at the Sauberg (mountain) developed into a modern mining complex which was closed in 1990 for economic reasons.
The Ehrenfriedersdorf Mining Landscape is one of the oldest medieval tin ore mining areas in Germany. Mining activities began here as early as the beginning of the 13th/14th century with placer mining followed by opencast mining and underground mining at the Sauberg (mountain) in the 15th/16th century.
