DEUTSCHLAND | GERMANY |
Bundesland: Freistaat Sachsen | Saxony |
Landkreis: Erzgebirgskreis |
Thum is situated at an elevation of 505 m on the Jahnsbach stream in the district Erzgebirgskreis of Germany's state of Saxony. To the south lies the woodland area of the Greifensteine. The municipality of Thum als comprises the villages of Herold and Jahnsbach and has a population of about 5,400 (2012).
Thum was first mentioned 1389 in records of the archdiocese of Prague. From the 14th century, mining in the once densely forested Erzgebirge (Ore Mountains) steadily increased, and a history book of 1445 describes Thum as a small mining town. Considerable amounts of axinite were found, which initially was given the name Thumit. In 1469 Thum acquired the status of a town. The last battle of the Thirty Years' War in Saxony was fought on 15 January 1648 near Thum. The destruction caused by the war resulted in mining no longer being sustainable. With the run-down of ore mining in the area, Thum (like many other towns and villages in the Erzgebirge) turned to wooden toy manufacture. In the 18th and 19th centuries, the textile industry was the main source of income for Thum. The Rittergut (manor) of Dorfthum was incorporated into Thum in 1879. With the zoning reforms in the 1990s, the neighbouring villages of Jahnsbach and Herold were incorporated into the municipality.
The town church Sankt Anna [background] was built at the beginning of the 16th century in place of an older chapel of around 1300and which had been destroyed in 1429. The church was consecrated in1509 as parish church of Thum. The church suffered severe damages in 1648 at the end of the Thirt Years' War and during a large fire which had destroyed large parts of Thum in 1702. Rebuilt in 1703 St. Anne's was destroyed almost completely duringa bomb raid on 14 February 1945. The church was rebuilt in 1947–1951. The altar dates from around 1690 and was brought here from Thierbaum, its organ originally had served the teachers' seminary of Mittweida, the bells were brought here from the church St. Nicholas at Chemnitz.
[https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thum, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thum;
http://www.stadt-thum.de/index.php?id_ds=2&adr_id=5127&su_adr=-1&EpS=10&n_start=0#a1]