Silver Mine in Tarnowskie Góry

Silver Mine on the Route of Technical Monuments

The Silver Mine inTarnowskie Góryis a unique tourist attraction on a European scale, attracting many visitors from all over the world. This historic mine is located at Szczęść Boże Street, on the outskirts of the city, on the route to Gliwice. Bronze signs lead to it. The mine in Tarnowskie Góry lies on the Silesian Route of Technology Monuments and is one of the five anchor attractions of this route (also referred to as the TechnologyStar), which means that it is more or less one of the best attractions in the entire Silesian Voivodeship. The Silver Mine is an outstanding work of mining engineering, the only tourist route at the moment (2021) that shows underground excavations after the former mining of silver, lead and zinc ore. Hand-carved ancestors, transport walkways and huge chambers from the turn of the 18th and 19th centuries are presented here.

Silver Mine - Unesco facility

Since 2014, the Silver Mine in Tarnowskie Góry has been located on the European Industrial Heritage Route (ERIH), and in July 2017, together with a team of other Tarnowskie Góry hydrotechnical monuments, it was entered on the prestigious UNESCO List, which includes several objects from Poland, including theWawel Castle or the Mines in Wieliczka and Bochnia. This is a great ennoblement for the entire Tarnowskie Góry!

Silver Mine Sightseeing

The length of the tourist route in the Silver Mine is 1740 meters, most of which is covered on foot, and 270 meters are crossed by boats through an underground adit. The tour lasts about 1.5 hours, only with a guide, who delights tourists with interesting stories about the past of this place and about gulags, i.e. former miners who worked in the underground, often since boyhood.

Multimedia Museum in the Mine

First, you visit the multimedia rooms in the Mine building, under the roof, but on the surface. In various ways, using modern technology, it talks about the history of mining in Tarnowskie Góry, with which the creation of the city is strongly associated. You will see interesting films, installations and exhibits. Among the latter, two have stuck in my memory in particular. One is the Pater Noster, which allows the material to be brought to the surface. Why the name? Yes, as you probably know, Pater Noster is Latin for Our Father. The Gwarków had to say this prayer in Latin, which meant that after that time the buckets came to the surface. The second device that I supposedly know, but which surprised me a lot, is a horse-drawn wheel. Huge steering wheels were on the surface and there were horses working on them. Are you aware that you need as many as 40 horses to start this machine? The steering wheel worked continuously, and for one day of operation of this device it took about 120 horses! Therefore, in the 18th century, there were more horses than people living in the Tarnowskie Góry. And here we also learn about the use and operation of the steam engine, which was brought to Tarnowskie Góry by Reden from England at the end of the 18th century, its start-up took place in 1788. It was the first steam engine not only in Poland, but in continental Europe. It weighed 32 tons and a special building was built for it! Both the steering wheels and steam machines were designed to drain water from the mine sidewalks, because it was the main problem and threat to welds and ore mining.

For this purpose, drainage tunnels were also built, which were designed to get rid of excess water by a constant decline. It was the cheapest solution. Several such adits were created in Tarnowskie Góry, one still leads under the Market Square, at a depth of about 20-30 meters underground. This is the Adit of Jacob. Such an adit is also the famous Black Trout Adit, open to tourists, which is a fragment of the former 19th-century Fryderyk Deep Adit.

What is Tarnowicyt?

And one more curiosity from the Museum in the Mine, do you know such a mineral Tarnowicyt? It was discovered in 1841 by the famous mineralogist August Breithaupt and named tarnowicite (PbCO3) after the then German name of Tarnowskie Góry - Tarnowitz, because it was here that it was first found. Separated as a separate mineral, today it is sometimes classified as a variety of aragonite, it occurs in few places on Earth.

Underground route of the Mine

After passing the Museum, one wears helmets and descends to the basement by a shaft lift (elevator), to a depth of 40.5 meters, to the Staszic Walkway. It is the deepest place in the entire Tarnowskie Góry mine. Electric lighting is installed underground, the temperature is about 10 degrees Celsius and there is very high humidity, which makes the feeling as if it is even cooler, all the more so because you can feel the draft in places.

Legendary Mine Spirit - Treasurer

The former corridors of the Royal Fryderyk Metal Mine from the turn of the 18th and 19th centuries are visited here. The mine operated until the beginning of the 20th century. You will get to know only a fragment of the underground labyrinth. The underground route connects three mining shafts - Angel, Viper and God's Happiness. In places, you have to bend over, because the corridors are low, the lowest is about 140 cm high. It's a little bit of a tribute to the mining engineering genius of our ancestors! On the route you will see large chambers, sidewalks of different heights and secured in different ways (eggs were used as binder for one of them), trolleys in which the excavated material was transported and you will listen to many interesting stories of the guide. You will also hear the legendary spirit of the mine - the Treasurer and the prayer to St. Barbara, who supposedly became the patron saint of the miners thanks to the Tarnogórskie gwark. A great attraction when visiting the Mine is the flow of a boat pulled by ropes. It is quite a short rafting trip, because it is 270 meters long, but it is a curiosity.

In 2012, the underground tourist route of the Mine in Tarnowskie Góry was sounded to the sounds of the hard work of the miners, the effects of the mine collapse, moving trolleys and blasting works, which positively affects the reception of this place. In 2014, the Silver Mine in Tarnowskie Góry received the Certificate of the Polish Tourist Organization.

And what did the work in the mine look like in the past?

All the rules regarding mining in Tarnowskie Góry were established by Ordunek Gorny (the mines were then called gory), i.e. a specific mining act, issued in 1528 by the Duke of Opole John II the Good and Margrave Jerzy Hohenzollern Ansbach. Women could not work in the mine, and boys could start working at the age of 15. Downstairs, one worked in pairs - an experienced miner with a young boy gaining some education in this profession. 

They worked 12 hours a day, from 5.00 am to 5.00 pm. Although the bells struck this working time at the top, they could not be heard at the bottom, so the miners were assigned the duration of the work by the mining lights. The oil supply lasted for 6 hours, so a lamp filled twice, when it went out, meant the end of work. Very hard work, actually drudgery, with darkness, fear and enormous physical effort. They worked in silence to hear the "singing" of wood, which could have foreshadowed a heart attack, i.e. the collapse of rock masses. The darkness did not bother the miners too much, because many of them were blind anyway, or had very poor eyesight. This was done not only by eternal darkness, but also by a sudden transition from deep darkness to a world illuminated by strong sunlight. This damaged their cornea. However, no one forced the miners to work, it was not slavery, they earned quite a good salary, allowing their family to live peacefully. No one paid them to mine the rock, only for silver, so they often accelerated their work with powder, because when the dolomite rock was hard, it meant that it was far from silver. The big obstacle to work was water, which is why they wore hats up to their shoulders, but on their feet, in these muddy sidewalks, they had only leather, often holey shoes, or rather flip-flops visible in the picture. If they lived to 40, they were "old age".

Silver Mine - Open-Air Museum of Steam Machines

On the surface, next to the Historic Mine, you can visit the Open Air Museum of Steam Machines free of charge, with exhibits, as it is not difficult to guess, previously moved by steam. You will find, among others, a road roller, a railway crane, a power generator, steam pumps, hoisting machines and numerous steam locomotives. The objects in the open-air museum are renovated, although you can see traces of time on them, after all, they come from a bygone era. The oldest of them is nearly 150 years old, because it was produced in 1883. A curiosity for children - you can climb on the exhibits and wave from the window of the steam locomotive🙂 In addition, there is a mini open-air railway in the open-air museum during the warm season. This one is already payable, but the price is symbolic. It takes about 20 people at a time. Since 2019, the Open-Air Steam Engine Open-Air Museum at the Mine has been hosting an extremely interesting outdoor event - the Steam Festival, where, in addition to local facilities, others from a wide area run on site. This is a great attraction not only for children.

Silver Mine - part of the Tarnowskie Góry underground

The Silver Mine is only a small fragment of the Tarnowskie Góry underground, stretching with a dense network of corridors at various depths (usually between 20-40 meters underground), under the entire city of Tarnowskie Góry to nearby villages. This is about 150 km of underground sidewalks - more than the total length of streets in this city. It is a relic of the former mining of zinc and lead ores with an admixture of silver conducted in this area. The mine was opened to the public in 1976, on the 450th anniversary of granting city rights to the Tarnowskie Góry.

Silver Mine - where to eat?

The historic Silver Mine is not located in the very center of the city, and its exploration is also not super fast. In addition, I assure you that the time spent downstairs increases your appetite and makes you want something warm, such as coffee. So it's worth considering where to eat. Already in the Mine building you will find the Silver Mine Bistro, which can be entered both directly from the Mine and from the outside. You will have coffee here, you will eat a cake, but also a quick warm snack. If you fancy a real restaurant, next to the Mine there is the Danusia Restaurant, but it is rather for organized events, I recommend, for example, the Lando Restaurant in Ptakowice(ul. Pod Lasem 11), with horses in the background, because there is also an equestrian center here. It is not far from the Mine, the food is tasty here, mainly from Polish cuisine, and a very nice bypass with a walking area, a pond and a small playground for children. In the center of Tarnowskie Góry, there are more interesting places, such as Taco Mexicano near the Market Square (5 Stalamacha Street) or Pizzeria U Wronów (15 Karol Miarki Street). Here, in addition to a very tasty pizza (cheese with sunflower is unique), I also recommend rolls with cheese pastes. Delicious 🙂

Black Trout Adit

In addition to the Mine, another fragment of the Tarnowskie Góry underground, in the form of the Black Trout Adit, available in the Repecki Park, also in the Tarnowskie Góry, in the Stare Tarnowice district (information about this facility at the same telephone number and on the same website), was made available for visitors.

Accommodation

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Practical information

I-V and IX-XII Tue-Sun 9.00-15.00
VI-VIII Mon-Fri 9.00-15.00, Sat-Sun 9.00-17.00
Tickets: Normal PLN 47, Reduced PLN 37
Black Trout Adit Package: Normal PLN 74, Reduced PLN 61 Mini queue: PLN
6 per ride
Current visiting hours and ticket prices can be found at:
www.kopalniasrebra.pl Parking: Free
facility with no age restrictions, available for baby carriages and wheelchairs
The visiting time on the route with boats is 1.5 hours, about 30 minutes in museum halls and about 1 hour underground, where the temperature is about 10 degrees Celsius, and the humidity is about 90%, which makes it cool and worth taking outerwear and full shoes during the season.

Historic Silver Mine
ul. Szczęść Boże 81, Tarnowskie Góry
tel. 32/ 285-29-81

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What's worth seeing in the area?

You don't have to travel far to find more interesting places. Within a radius of 100 kilometers, there are many attractions waiting for you that will certainly enrich your stay Your trip with additional memories.

• Gródek Park in Jaworzno, distance: 39.9  km
• Błędowska Desert, distance: 49.5  km
• Ogrodzieniec Castle, distance: 49.8  km
• Eagle's Nest Trail, distance: 49.9  km
• Kapias Gardens in Goczałkowice Zdrój, distance: 53.6  km
• Krakowskie valleys, distance: 69.2  km
• Ojców National Park, distance: 74.1  km
• Moszna Castle, distance: 76.6  km
• Castle in Żywiec, distance: 85.7  km
• Kazimierz in Kraków, distance: 88.4  km