Authors

Discussion

This paper will consider the ‘disrupted’ history of the small Czech town of Jáchymov, which experienced ‘the best and worst of Bohemian history’ during the twentieth century (Radio Prague, 2021). Following the discovery of substantial local uranium reserves at the turn of the century, Jáchymov became renowned for the healing properties of its radon-infused spring water, flourishing as a popular and prosperous spa town during the early decades of the twentieth century. However, Jáchmov’s location on the Czech-German borderland, combined with the increasing strategic significance of uranium, placed the town at the centre of the growing political storm which engulfed Europe from the end of the 1930s. During the years of German occupation and war, local spa culture and health tourism was disrupted, while the Jáchymov region became a centre for forced labour, a process which culminated after the Communist coup of 1948 and the establishment of the so-called “Jachymov Hell” (Jáchymovské peklo), a system of brutal prison camps where an estimated 70,000 political prisoners were forced to mine uranium in deadly conditions. Following the closure of the labour camps in the 1960s and the ensuing silence about Stalinist-era repression in Czechoslovakia, efforts were made to re-establish local spa culture, a revival which continued in the post-communist decades. Today, while contemporary tourist sites primarily emphasise Jáchmov’s identity as a historic spa town, various civic organisations have struggled to raise awareness of Jáchymov’s importance as a carceral landscape, which symbolises communist-era suffering and a destination for dark tourism.

Evidence suggests that Jáchymov is still grappling with aspects of its tumultuous past today. This paper will discuss Jáchymov’s 'disrupted' modern history and consider how it’s reputation as a place associated with the consumption of wellness and healing intersects with the much darker legacy of disposability, human suffering and environmental damage inflicted upon the region, before analysing the duality of Jáchymov’s contemporary status and ‘place branding’ as a centre of wellness and a carceral cultural landscape.