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Boží Dar

de: Gottesgab
bg: Божи дар ru: Божи-Дар

Boží Dar is situated at an elevation of 1028 m in the mountain range Krušné hory (Erzgebirge), about 21 km northnortheast of the district town and regional capital Karolovy Vary. It is Bohemia's highest-lying municipality and as of 1 January 2021 has a population of 251.

The town was founded around 1517 when rich deposits of tin and silver were found in the region. At that time the name was Wintersgrün. The name Gottesgab (Gotsgab, Gotsgaben) (in Czech: Boží Dar, 'godsend') was introduced when Elector Johann Friedrich I of Saxony granted it the status of a mining town in 1546. The status of a Royal mining town was granted by Emperor Rudolf II in 1580. Mining lost much of its importance for the town already in the 16th century. Since 1955 the region is used for summer and winter tourism. The mining region of Boží Dar is part of the UNESCO World Cultural Heritage site Erzgebirge/Krušhoří (Ore Mountains) Mining Region, listed in 2019 and including, on the Czech side, the Krupka Mining Cultural Landscape, the Jáchymov Mining Landscape, the Abertamy – Boží Dar – Horní Blatná Mining Landscape, the Mining Landscape at the peak of Medník, and the Red Tower of Death in Vykmanov. (see also list of other UNESCO heritage sites depicted on glasses of this collection)

4196 Boží Dar
The church of St. Anna [left, no. 4196: right], situated at an elevation of 1,020 m, is the highest-lying church in the Ore Mountain region. It goes back to a first, wooden chapel that presumably was built between about 1530 and 1540. The first stone-built church followed in 1593. However, this old church was destroyed by fire in the mid-18th century and the ruins were removed later. The present, late Baroque church was built in 1771. By the end of the 1960s, the church had become so dilapidated that plans for a complete removal were made. However, the inhabitants of Boží Dar insisted to keep up the building. A first only a temporary new roof was installed. A reconstruction of the church was then started in 1990, but due to lack of funds could not be completed so that the church soon decayed again. Since 2013 the church is owned by the municipality. In 2016 a public collection was started to collect funds for the purpose of reconstruction.

732a Boží Dar
The two pictures on glass no. 732 [near left] show buildings of two mountains in the vicinity of Boží Dar:

The mountain Klínovec (Keilberg) (1244 m) [left], 3.5 km southeast of Boží Dar, offers a splendid view over the region. The look-out tower depicted on the glass was named after Emperor Franz Joseph I of Austria.

The back side the glass shows the mountain Fichtelberg near Oberwiesenthal in Germany.

[https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bo%C5%BE%C3%AD_Dar; https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Montanregion_Erzgebirge; https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Anna_(Bo%C5%BE%C3%AD_Dar), https://cs.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kostel_svat%C3%A9_Anny_(Bo%C5%BE%C3%AD_Dar)]


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