The town stretches predominantly from the eastern ridge of the almost 900-m-high Fastenberg to where the Breitenbach, which forms part of the border with the Czech Republic, empties into the river Schwarzwasser.

Johanngeorgenstadt consists of the centres of Altstadt (called locally Sockendorf), Mittelstadt, Neustadt, Schwefelwerk, Jugel (Ober- and Unterjugel), Henneberg, Wittigsthal, Pachthaus, Heimberg (with Külliggut), Steigerdorf (with Haberlandmühle), Steinbach and Sauschwemme.

Owing to the town's great elevation – the road to Neustadt reaches 892 m – the winter here, with its long-lasting snow cover, often lasts half the year, making Johanngeorgenstadt one of Saxony's snowiest areas.

Wind strengths of four to seven at any time of year are not a rarity, leading to the town's already becoming a well-loved summer resort by the late 19th century.

On 23 February 1654 in Annaburg, the founding of Johanngeorgenstadt at the Fastenberg right on the border in the Amt of Schwarzenberg by Bohemian Protestant refugees driven from Horní Blatná was approved by Elector John George I of Saxony.

Already in 1651 in today's constituent community of Wittigsthal, an ironworks had come into service, and by 1828, Carl Gotthilf Nestler (1789–1864) had set up Saxony's first fully functional iron plate rolling mill in the Haberlandmühle.

In the Second World War, with the seizure of owner Arthur Krautmann's “Deutsches Haus” hotel across from the railway station, the town became home to a military hospital.

The closure that began in 1990 of many businesses, such as the glove, textile and furniture industries as well as machine building led to a great fall in the town's population to levels below those before the war.

The official German blazon, however (“Geteilt von Silber über Rot; oben drei rote Gebäude mit Türmen, unten ein kleiner Silberschild, darin schwarze Schlägel und Eisen”), does not mention the black roofs seen in the sample coat of arms in this article, nor does it say exactly how the charges are to be configured.

There is also an “educational and entertaining” visitor mine in Wittigsthal called “Frisch Glück” Johanngeorgenstadt is where the Ore Mountain folk group De Randfichten comes from, although only one of the three musicians, Michael Rostig, actually still lives in town.

At Röderplatz is found the memorial dedicated on 8 September 1901 to the Ore Mountain poet and singer, school principal Christian Friedrich Röder (1827–1900); it includes a larger-than-life bust.

Johanngeorgenstadt was included in the postal road system of the Electorate of Saxony as the town lay on a pass in the Ore Mountains.

There are furthermore several Kingdom of Saxony milestones near the town that were placed from 1858 onwards, for example on the old postal route from Auerbach by way of Carlsfeld and Wildenthal (today part of Eibenstock) to Johanngeorgenstadt.

With the reopening of the railway on 30 June 1991 and the opening of a pedestrian border crossing, which may also be used by motorscooters, it became possible to reach the neighbouring Czech community of Potůčky.

Until 1990, the hostel bore the name Ernst Schneller, after a prewar Communist member of the Reichstag who died at the Sachsenhausen concentration camp.

The gymnasium built in 1930 and 1931 on Eibenstocker Straße was opened once again in late October 2004 as the Franz Mehring Sport and Meeting Place after renovation and expansion.