The Stairs of Horror is a wooden staircase in Jáchymov that carries one of the most haunting stories of the Czech borderlands. This isn't your typical hiking trail - it's a memorial site where 270 steep steps once forced prisoners of a forced labor camp to climb up and down daily on their way to and from the Svornost mine shaft, during the darkest years of communist uranium mining.

The replica staircase climbs a steep slope above the former mine shaft, with a gradient of 25-28 degrees (roughly a 50% incline), giving visitors just a taste of the exhaustion prisoners endured every single day. The surroundings are quiet and wooded, and the atmosphere invites reflection rather than typical hiking cheer. In autumn and winter, when mist settles over the Ore Mountains, the place feels especially powerful.

How to get there

• Jáchymov, near the former Svornost mine shaft - part of the Jáchymovské peklo (Jáchymov Hell) educational trail, a short walk of a few minutes, easy access though climbing the stairs themselves takes some stamina
• Reachable on foot or by car to a nearby parking area, then a short walk to the site

Practical information

• The current wooden replica was built after 2000 thanks to the PolitičtíVězni.cz association and other institutions
• The stairs form part of the Jáchymovské peklo educational trail
• Nothing remains of the original 1950s staircase

Interestingly, media sometimes mislabel the site as the 'Mauthausen Stairs' - a name considered disrespectful to the victims of the real Stairs of Death at Mauthausen concentration camp, since nothing comparable to those atrocities ever took place here.