Active shaft site at Jáchymov serving as ventilation intake and radon water source, connected underground to Důl Svornost, with a steel headframe erected in 1982–1987.
Jáma Josef at Jáchymov in the Ore Mountains is a mine shaft with origins dating to around 1520, when it was founded on the Schotterberg by a miner named Huber under the name Helena Huber. One of the richest silver mines of the Jáchymov district, it continued operating through periods of deep decline and by the late eighteenth century had been sold to the town. It was renamed Jáma Josef II when Emperor Joseph II visited on 30 September 1779.
State ownership followed in 1802. Pitchblende for uranium paint production was extracted from the mid-nineteenth century, and by the early twentieth century the shaft had reached 300 metres. Connected to Důl Svornost by a 700-metre gallery, it served as a ventilation shaft for that mine until flooding caused its closure and backfilling in 1901.
The shaft was reopened after the Second World War for uranium extraction under Soviet-directed operations. The sixteenth-century horse gin was removed to a museum in Kutná Hora in 1948 and an older headframe from Svornost was installed in its place. The shaft was progressively deepened to approximately 470 metres.
After the end of uranium extraction in 1964 it has continued to function as a ventilation intake shaft for Svornost and as a source of radon water supplying the Běhounek sanatorium. A reconstruction in 1982–1987 included installation of a new headframe approximately 15.2 metres high.
Jáma Josef at Jáchymov traces its origins to approximately 1520, when a miner named Huber began sinking a shaft on the Schotterberg to the south of the town. The mine was probably named Helena Huber after a female relative of the founder. From its earliest years it ranked among the richest silver mines of the entire Jáchymov district, and exceptionally it remained productive even during the prolonged decline of the town following the Thirty Years' War, a period when almost all other mines in the region ceased working.
In 1764 the last private owner sold the mine to the town of Jáchymov, which by that time also owned Důl Svornost. During the second half of the eighteenth century a brief revival of silver extraction prompted the construction of new surface buildings including a horse gin, known as a žentour or göpl, of sixteenth-century design. On 30 September 1779 Emperor Joseph II visited the mine, and the occasion was commemorated by renaming it Jáma Josef II. In 1802 all mines in the Jáchymov district passed into state administration, primarily because of growing costs and economic difficulties.
From the mid-nineteenth century the mine's fortunes revived with the extraction of pitchblende (smolinec) for the manufacture of uranium paints. By the early twentieth century the shaft had reached a depth of approximately 300 metres. In addition to its own extraction, the mine served as the principal ventilation shaft for Důl Svornost, to which it was connected by a 700-metre-long gallery. A horse track was laid in this gallery for the removal of spoil to the tip. However, when a powerful underground spring flooded Důl Svornost, the water also entered jáma Josef through the connecting gallery in such volumes that the shaft was closed and backfilled in 1901. The sixteenth-century horse gin on the surface was preserved.
After the Second World War the Jáchymov district entered its most intensive and darkest mining period, with massive uranium extraction carried out under Soviet direction using forced labour including political prisoners. In the framework of uranium operations at Svornost, jáma Josef was reopened, now referred to without the imperial suffix as simply jáma Josef. In 1948 the historic sixteenth-century horse gin was dismantled and transferred to the museum then being established in Kutná Hora, where it was reassembled and unveiled in 1949 after being declared a national cultural monument. An older headframe from Svornost was installed above jáma Josef in its place. The shaft was progressively deepened during the uranium mining period to approximately 470 metres.
When uranium extraction in the Jáchymov district ended in 1964, jáma Josef did not close but assumed an enduring supporting role. It continues to function as the intake ventilation shaft for the Svornost mine system, drawing fresh air into the underground workings, while Svornost and the Rovnost shaft serve as the exhaust. The natural ventilation of the entire system is entirely passive. In 1962, during the uranium phase, a radon water spring was tapped which today supplies the Jáchymov Běhounek sanatorium. A significant reconstruction was carried out between 1982 and 1987, during which the old surface structures were removed and a new steel headframe approximately 15.2 metres high was erected. The shaft thus remains an operational component of the Jáchymov mining system and of the spa industry it serves.