A self-guided tour gives visitors a sense of the harsh atmosphere of the Vykmanov II camp, heightened by the presence of the still-operational Ostrov prison nearby. The then communist regime assigned the camp the code name “L.” Although this was apparently not the original intention, the MUKLs (men designated for liquidation) came up with the nickname “liquidation camp” for “L,” given the working conditions that had a drastic impact on the camp’s inmates’ health. While walking through the grounds, the atmosphere is further enhanced by nature and its ability to reclaim what humans had previously taken from it. Nature has largely been left free to reclaim the area since the now-defunct Škoda Ostrov company abandoned the site.

Please note: We are operating on a limited basis and currently do not have functional restrooms on the site. We are working hard to resolve this.

En route to the tower, visitors walk past an administrative building—which was constructed after the Red Tower—and are then greeted by a view of the “barrel factory” buildings on the other side of the complex. This facility was built to produce steel barrels used to store the final product of the manufacturing process: uranium crushed ore.

Visitors then catch their first glimpse of the Red Tower itself and the adjacent expediting warehouses. The structure impresses visitors with the strangely dark aesthetic of a purely functional building constructed of red bricks. These bricks are one of the inspirations for the building’s current name, which was devised by the MUKL prisoners themselves. The ambiguity of this name is, of course, heightened by the “red” totalitarian ideology that stood behind the entire Jáchymov camp complex.

Visitors continue inside the national cultural heritage building, where a temporary exhibition consisting of two parts awaits them in the western warehouse:

1. The concept for the audiovisual section of the exhibition, which in 2026 replaced the no longer suitable part of the original temporary exhibition.
2. The temporary exhibition, in the form of informational panels created by the Institute for the Study of Totalitarian Regimes in 2022, illustrates the suffering of the prisoners, the functioning of the camp, and the influence of the Soviets, who were behind all the events in the uranium industry in Czechoslovakia.

The tour continues into the Red Tower itself, where visitors can see the remnants of the original equipment. The site evokes images of how prisoners suffered here amid the intense radiation emitted by the ubiquitous uranium dust. In the eastern exhibition hall, visitors are confronted with hanging “banners” featuring photographs, basic information, and brief stories about the prisoners. This selection is, in a sense, a statistical anomaly—testimonies and stories were gathered from only a small sample of prisoners, particularly those who lived to an advanced age. The testimonies and names of many others who died in the first few years after their discharge from the camps—during a time of restricted freedom when they were bound to confidentiality under the threat of further punishment—will likely never be compiled.