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P��bram is one of the well-known historical royal mining towns. Originally a settlement mentioned already in 1216, later a town of Prague bishops /archbishops/ in the vicinity of rich silver and lead deposits, P��bram was elevated to the status of a royal mining town by Rudolph II in 1579. In 1849, a mining college was founded here, which later became a Mining Academy, the University of Mining since 1904. Silver ore mining in the P��bram region was terminated in 1978. Since 1948, intensive uranium mining was carried out. Today, P��bram is no more a mining town. However, it continues to be a pilgrimage town and a memorial of rich mining traditions.

Svat� Hora (Holy Mountain) of P��bram is the oldest and the most important Marian pilgrimage place in the Czech Republic. The Svat� Hora Chapel is documented from the beginning of the 16th century; it was a simple Renaissance building then. As the church tradition has it, the statuette of the Virgin Mary with Infant Jesus was made by archbishop Arno�t of Pardubice in the middle of the 14th century. Soon after it was transferred to the Svat� Hora Chapel in the 16th century, religious processions started to come. In 1647, Svat� Hora was entrusted to the Jesuits, who commenced a magnificent construction of a new cathedral. In 1673, the new building was consecrated as the primary pilgrimage place. The project of the pilgrimage premises in the Czech early Baroque style is a work of C. Lurag, it was decorated by J. Brokof, J. O. Mayer, J. A. Quitainer, P. Brandl and others. In 1861, Svat� Hora administration was taken on by the redemptorists, who operated here until 1950 and who came back after forty years. The big importance of Svat� Hora was further intensified by conferment of the honorary papal title of basilica minor.