Spindleruv Mlyn (German: Spindlermühle) is a town in the Giant Mountains and also the most visited mountain resort in the Czech Republic. Approximately 1,100 people live here. The city has an area of 7690.91 hectares. The road II / 295 ends in the city center, which is followed by a mountain road to Špindlerův bouda.
The oldest surviving record of Špindlerův Mlýn dates from the
beginning of the 16th century, when several cottages served as a
refuge for miners working in nearby smelters, which processed iron
ore. Between 1516 and 1521, the Czech King Ludvík Jagellonský
allowed the miners deadlines to pay tithes and relief. The mining of
silver, copper and arsenic ores attracted Kryštof of Gendorf, who
later acquired the Vrchlabí estate and significantly contributed to
the fact that Vrchlabí was promoted to an upper town in 1533. One
hundred years later, in 1621, a load of copper and silver for St.
10,000 gold coins even traveled to Prague from St. Peter's. In the
17th century, mining was interrupted by the Thirty Years' War. After
that, the mines changed owners, but efforts to restore mining proved
futile. The last attempts to resume mining took place at the
beginning of the 20th century.
Tourism development
From
the beginning of the 19th century, tourism began to develop in
Špindlerův Mlýn. In the second half of the 19th century, several
abandoned cottages were transformed into a mountain resort. The
construction of the road from Vrchlabí in 1872 contributed to
increasing the accessibility of the whole area. In 1888, the spa
began to operate here. At the end of the 19th century, in 1894,
there were a total of 18 hotels and restaurants in Špindlerův Mlýn.
Tourism (hospitality) thus slowly began to replace grazing (ie
mining) and mining farms.
Until the 20th century, it was
popular to spend time here, especially in the summer, and gradually
began to practice winter sports. The first chairlift was put into
operation here in 1947, leading from St. Peter to Pláň. As of 2016,
there were a total of 43 hotels, 134 guesthouses and 23 mountain
huts. The resort is visited mainly by Czech tourists, and Germans,
Poles and Dutch also come here in large numbers.
After the
Second World War, grazing farms and agriculture in general ceased to
operate at the expense of tourism.