High in the Ore Mountains, on the edge of the Czech village of Měděnec, lies the abandoned Důl Měděnec mine a silent monument to the industrial ambition of the socialist 1960s. Here, where copper and later iron were once extracted from the mountain, the tall 50-meter skip tower still dominates the rugged landscape.

Built between 1960 and 1968, the modern mine went into full operation in 1968. For decades, hundreds of miners worked deep underground in shafts reaching nearly 280 meters below the surface. They brought up millions of tons of magnetite ore, rich in iron, copper, and even traces of silver. The hum of engines, the grinding of conveyor belts, and the roar of compressors once filled the valley.

When production stopped in 1992, the mine fell silent almost overnight. The towering structures the headframe, the machine hall, and the ore-processing plant were left to rust and decay. What had once symbolized progress and prosperity slowly became a relic of the past, reclaimed by nature