Mining Directorate

The eastern side of T. G. Masaryk Square is bordered by one of the most imposing buildings in the city.
It is a two-storey office block, with rusticated plasterwork, featuring a magnificently decorated cast-iron balustrade on the balcony above the entrance portal, built in 1846–47 in the Empire style by the architect Stiebor for the Mining Directorate (offices, meeting and reception rooms, as well as technical, operational and staff facilities, etc.).
The date of construction is indicated by a chronogram with Roman numerals on the attic: MDCCCXXXXVI – 1846.
It was built on a plot of land purchased in 1839 by the mining administration, on which Chroust’s house had previously stood, with a farm building belonging to another well-known Příbram burgher, Jiří Piazzi, situated next to it. However, an older single-storey building housing the mining office (from 1814, the Chief Mining Office – prior to 1847, its headquarters had also been in a two-storey building in the centre of the northern part of the main square – the Mining Office had been established in Příbram in 1689.

Following the demolition of the aforementioned buildings on the eastern side of the square and the construction of this new building, which had served the mining management since 1847, Příbram’s first Imperial-Royal telegraph station found its premises here twenty years later, and between 1894 – 1914, the post office was also housed here, before it moved into its own new Art Nouveau building near the town hall. The Mining Directorate building had, in the past, witnessed many magnificent miners’ parades; in 1889, the heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne, Archduke Franz Ferdinand d’Este, stayed here whilst visiting Příbram during military manoeuvres; from the building’s balcony, city officials ceremonially proclaimed the Czechoslovak Republic in October 1918 and, in May 1945, welcomed the Allied soldiers who had helped liberate our country from Nazism. Even after 1945, the headquarters of the mining administration remained here.
On 7 March 1946, the Ministry of Industry issued a charter establishing the Příbram Ore Mines, national enterprise Příbram (formerly the State Silver and Lead Mines in Příbram), with effect from 1 January 1946.
On 14 August 1947, it was renamed the Ore and Graphite Mines, National Enterprise, Příbram. This organisation was responsible for all Czech and Moravian deposits of non-ferrous metal ores, and from 1947 onwards, graphite as well. In 1949, the deposits were divided amongst several newly established smaller enterprises.
The Central Bohemian Ore Mines, National Enterprise, remained in Příbram, managing both deposits in the Březohorský mining district and, for a certain period, other ore deposits in the Příbram region and, to some extent, in other parts of Bohemia. On 1 April 1958, the merger of all the subsidiary companies in Bohemia led to the formation of Rudné dodly, n. p., Příbram. The company’s expanded scope of operations, combined with the need to modernise its IT infrastructure, led in the 1980s to the decision to construct a new two-storey building in the courtyard to house a computer centre; which now houses the Příbram District Social Security Administration.
The headquarters of the state-owned enterprise Rudné doly Příbram were located in the historic building until 2001, after which it housed the Uranium Deposits Administration, o. z., DIAMO, s. p.
, was based there. In 2006, the town of Příbram acquired this listed building.

The ground floor of the building is home to the Příbram Municipal Police.

Source: PaedDr. Josef Velfl: Cultural Monuments of Příbram