German Mining Museum

Founded in 1930, the Deutsches Bergbau-Museum is the largest mining museum in the world and combines a public museum with a research institute. Beneath it lies a demonstration mine built specifically for the purpose from 1935 onward, about twenty metres down with two and a half kilometres of galleries fitted with real machinery from different periods, from hand tools to shearer loaders, so visitors walk through working conditions across a century. It is not a former mine but a purpose-built teaching facility. The winding tower above, twenty-one metres and visible across the city, was moved here in 1973 from a closed colliery and carries a viewing platform.

What you actually see

• The demonstration mine - 2.5 kilometres of galleries twenty metres down.
• The machinery - real equipment from hand tools to modern cutters.
• The winding tower - a headframe moved from a colliery in 1973.
• The research collections - mineral, technology and mining history holdings.

When to go

Year-round; the museum closes Mondays. The underground tour takes about an hour and involves walking and steps. School groups fill weekdays in term time.

Honest expectations

The mine below is purpose-built, not an original working pit. The tour involves a lot of walking with low sections. It closes Mondays.

Nearby

Essen's Zollverein lies west; Dortmund is east.