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Concept
Sněžka
Summary
Sněžka or Śnieżka (in Czech and Polish respectively; Schneekoppe, Snežka) is a mountain on the border between the Czech Republic and Poland, the most prominent point of the Silesian Ridge in the Giant Mountains. At , its summit is the highest point in the Czech Republic, in Lower Silesian Voivodeship, in the Giant Mountains and in the entire Sudetes.
Sněžka was one of the first European mountains visited by many tourists. This was mainly due to the relatively minor technical difficulties of the ascent and the fact that since the sixteenth century, many resort visitors flocked to the nearby Cieplice Śląskie-Zdrój and the highly visible Sněžka, visually dominant over all Giant Mountains was for them an important attraction.
The first historical account of an ascent to the peak is in 1456, by an unknown Venetian merchant searching for precious stones. The first settlements on the mountain soon appeared, being primarily mining communities, tapping into its deposits of copper, iron and arsenic. The mining shafts, totalling in length, remain to this day.
The first recorded German name was Riseberg ("giant mountain", cf. Riesengebirge, "Giant Mountains"), mentioned by Georg Agricola in 1546. Fifteen years later the name Riesenberg appears on Martin Helwig's map of Silesia. The German name later changed to Riesenkoppe ("giant top") and finally to Schneekoppe ("snow top", "snowy head"). Based on paintings of Caspar David Friedrich and of novels from Theodor Fontane the Schneekoppe region became a center of the first German tourism movement.
In Czech, the mountain was initially called Pahrbek Sněžný ("snow hill"); later Sněžka, with the eventual name Sněžovka, meaning "snowy" or "snow-covered", which was adopted in 1823. An older Polish name for the mountain was Góra Olbrzymia, meaning "giant mountain".
The first building on the mountaintop was the Chapel of Saint Lawrence (Laurentiuskapelle), built c. 1665–1681 by the Silesian noble Schaffgotsch family to mark their dominion, serving also as an inn for a brief period of time.
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