Zprávy památkové péče 2015, 75(6):521-531

Archaeological evaluation of relics of built up areas of the medieval mining town of Lauterbach/Čistá

Filip Prekop

It can generally be stated that submitted work has demonstrated that not even targeted overall destruction of a settlement is absolute, and that the areas of historic settlements that have become extinct in connection with the forced eviction of their population must be regarded as a places rich with evidence of early modern and medieval settlements.
In the case of the town of Lauterbach/Čistá, this is an interesting representative with urban elements typical for an older row-street village together with elements typical of early modern mining towns, such as those in the Ore Mountains. In the same way, this is a very unevenly protected historical settlement complex. Even though the manufacturing activity is marked by the tin mine of Jeroným with national cultural property status, the related settlement, the extinct town of Lauterbach, is merely recorded as a potential archaeological site.
Work has shown that this state of heritage protection is unjustified, and the area of the extinct town has a very rich spectrum of relics of an extinct settlement stretching before the middle 14th century. Work has also shown that the urban area of the town was repeatedly exposed to significant detriment even in the 2nd half of the 20th century, thus making the establishment of heritage protection highly desirable. According to the author, the results justify the claim for a declaration of the urban area as a cultural monument and thus have merit for an increase of the cultural heritage protection of the entire settlement area of the mining district of Lauterbach.

Keywords: Slavkov Forest, settlement, surface exploration, medieval, modern, settlements extinct after 1945

Published: December 1, 2015  Show citation