THE SITE
Reinsberg is located within the Erzgebirge/Krušnohoří Mining Region (Ore Mountains), which is a UNESCO World Heritage property extending across south-eastern Saxony in Germany and north-western Czechia inscribed in 2019. The transboundary cultural landscape reflects more than eight centuries of mining activity and documents the development of one of Europe’s most influential mining regions. The extraction of silver, tin, cobalt and other metals shaped settlement patterns, technological innovation, administrative structures and cultural life across the region. The World Heritage site encompasses mines, processing facilities, water-management systems, mining towns, and infrastructure that together illustrate the evolution of mining as a driver of regional development.
A defining component of this mining landscape is its extensive historic water-management system. From the late Middle Ages onwards, miners constructed networks of artificial channels, ditches, ponds, and underground conduits to capture, store, and distribute water. These systems provided the motive power required to operate pumps, hoisting devices, and ore-processing machinery, and they also supplied water to associated industrial sites such as mills, workshops, and paper mills. Within Saxony, such channel systems are among the most developed examples of early industrial water engineering and form an essential part of the Outstanding Universal Value of the Erzgebirge/Krušnohoří Mining Region.
The Grabentour takes its name from a canal system constructed between 1844 and 1846 as a mining auxiliary facility to supply water for operating mining machinery. Today known collectively as the “Grabentour”, this channel system is recognised as one of the best-documented structures of its kind in the Ore Mountains’ mining. It extends for approximately eight kilometres between Krummenhennersdorf and Reinsberg in the Bobritzsch Valley and follows a route that combines open channels with rock-cut sections and underground passages. The system is directly connected to the Rothschönberger Stolln, one of the most important drainage adits in the Freiberg Mining Landscape, which forms part of the World Heritage property.
Reinsberg itself emerged in the twelfth century in the context of High Medieval territorial expansion and the intensification of silver mining in the Freiberg area. The development of the settlement is closely linked to the establishment of Altzelle Monastery and to the arrival of Franconian farmers, who created linear villages with forest-strip fields and four-sided farmsteads. From the late twelfth century, Reinsberg became the seat of a knightly noble family bearing the same name. Their fortified residence, later known as Reinsberg Castle, was strategically positioned to control surrounding lands and revenues. In the early fifteenth century, the ancestral seat passed to the von Schönberg family, who acquired the remaining holdings in 1411 and subsequently resided at Reinsberg Castle for more than five centuries, exercising considerable influence over the wider region.
Within the forested area near the Grabentour is a stone memorial marking the site where Lorenz von Schönberg, lord of Upper and Lower Reinsberg, was severely wounded in 1632 by imperial Austrian troops during the Thirty Years’ War. This major European conflict (1618–1648) involved large parts of Central Europe and resulted in widespread devastation, population loss, and long-term social and economic disruption. The memorial connects the mining landscape not only to technological history but also to the political and military events that shaped the region.
Today, the Grabentour forms part of a well-established hiking route that follows the historic channel system through the Bobritzsch Valley. The path connects several mining monuments and landscape features and is used by residents and visitors as a cultural and recreational route. The preservation and care of the canal, associated structures, and commemorative elements are therefore of direct importance to the local community, both as components of the World Heritage mining landscape and as accessible points of encounter with the region’s history.
THE PROJECT
The European Heritage Volunteers Project at the Grabentour near Reinsberg in 2026 will focus on the rehabilitation and conservation of a section of approximately 300 metres of the historic water channel located in close proximity to the stone memorial of Lorenz von Schönberg. The project addresses a segment of the canal that is currently partially buried by sediment and affected by structural damage, limiting both its legibility as a historic water-management structure and its accessibility for visitors.
The primary task will consist of the careful cleaning and uncovering of the channel. Participants will remove accumulated sediment, vegetation, and debris in order to expose the original stone-built canal profile and to allow a detailed assessment of its condition. This preparatory phase is essential for identifying areas where the dry-stone walls have become unstable, displaced, or partially collapsed.
Based on this assessment, participants will carry out the repair and rebuilding of damaged sections of the canal using traditional dry stone construction techniques. Loose stones found within or adjacent to the channel will be collected, sorted, and reused wherever possible. Where necessary, unstable wall sections will be dismantled and reassembled, ensuring that stones are returned to their appropriate positions and that the historic construction logic of the channel is respected. All interventions will be guided by a local craftsperson and will follow a repair-oriented approach aimed at stabilising the structure while retaining maximum original material.
In parallel, participants will undertake basic conservation and cleaning works at the stone memorial of Lorenz von Schönberg. The interventions will focus on the careful removal of surface deposits and biological growth in order to improve the legibility of the inscription and enhance the monument’s readability as a historical marker. These works will be carried out using non-invasive methods appropriate for historic stone surfaces.
Additional small-scale tasks will support visitor access and interpretation of the site. These may include the cleaning and minor refurbishment of existing information plaques along the route and basic maintenance works at a small wooden shelter used by visitors as an information point and resting place. Together, these measures contribute to improving the overall presentation and usability of this section of the Grabentour as part of a widely used cultural hiking route.
The project will also explicitly connect to earlier European Heritage Volunteers activities undertaken in 2020 at another section of the Grabentour within the Freiberg Mining Landscape. While focusing on a different location, the 2026 project continues the broader objective of supporting the long-term care and visibility of historic mining water-management systems within the Erzgebirge/Krušnohoří Mining Region.
The educational programme will combine practical fieldwork with thematic inputs and site visits. Introductory sessions will address the concept of UNESCO World Heritage, its implications for site management, and the role of local communities in safeguarding cultural landscapes. A strong emphasis will be placed on the mining heritage of the region, supported through visits to mining-related heritage sites in Freiberg and the surrounding area, providing participants with contextual understanding of the technological and historical framework in which the Grabentour was created.
An integral element of the educational programme will be the participants’ presentations. Each participant is required to prepare and deliver a presentation related to the thematic focus of the activities on site, introducing a case study from their country of origin. This component connects the practical work undertaken during the programme with comparable heritage practices in different cultural and institutional contexts. Through this structured exchange, participants reflect on conservation approaches, management frameworks, and current challenges, contributing to a broader comparative understanding of heritage preservation. The presentations are intended to encourage critical dialogue, intercultural exchange, and the articulation of informed professional perspectives within an international group of emerging heritage practitioners.
The project will take place from August 16th to August 29th, 2026, and is organised by European Heritage Volunteers in collaboration with the Municipality of Reinsberg, the Verein Viertes Lichtloch des Rothschönberger Stollns (Association for the Fourth Light Hole of the Rothschönberger Adit), and the World Heritage Association for the Ore Mountain Mining Region.
