Pribram

Pribram, a town of Bohemia, Austria, 39 m. S.W. of Prague by rail. Pop. (1900), 13,576, together with the adjoining township of Birkenberg, 19,119, almost exclusively Czech. It lies in a valley between the hills of Birkenberg and Heiliger Berg, and in its neighbourhood are the lead and silver mines which belong to the Austrian government and are worked in nine shafts, two of which, the Adalbert shaft (3637 ft.) and the Maria shaft, (3575 ft.) are the deepest in the world. The mines have been worked for several centuries, but their actual prosperity dates from 1770, when the sinking of the Adalbert shaft began. They yield yearly an average of 80,000 lb of silver and 1900 tons of lead. At the top of the Heiliger Berg (1889 ft.) is a church with a wonder-working image of the Virgin, which is the chief place of pilgrimage in Bohemia.