The Tarnowskie Gory Silver Mine

Ore was worked here for centuries for lead, silver and later zinc, and the hard part was never the digging but the water. Generations of miners cut drainage adits under the town to move it, and that underground water system, together with the mine itself, is what UNESCO listed in 2017. Two routes are open. The mine route runs about 1,700 metres of low galleries and chambers on foot, with a short stretch by boat on the flooded workings. The Black Trout Adit is boat only: six hundred metres in a flat-bottomed craft along a drainage tunnel, in the dark, with a guide working the rope.

History

The district was known for mining galena, a source of lead and silver, and from the early 16th century it became one of the most important industrial centres of east-central Europe: after the town was founded in 1526, the last Duke of Opole, Jan II the Good, and Margrave George the Pious made it a free mining town, and its first miners came mostly from Franconia, with others from the Kutná Hora region of Bohemia, though the town gradually became Polish-speaking. The boom lasted until the end of the 16th century. Plans for a tourist route in the mid-1930s were halted by the Second World War, the Black Trout Adit, part of the drainage system, opened in 1957 and long held the longest underground boat route in Poland, and the route through the mine itself opened on 5 September 1976; the mine became a national Historic Monument in 2004 and, on 9 July 2017, a World Heritage Site with its underground water management system (Wikipedia, Historic Silver Mine in Tarnowskie Góry).

What's there

• The mine galleries - roughly 1,700 metres of hewn passages and chambers, low in places.
• The underground boat ride - a flooded stretch of the workings crossed by boat.
• The Black Trout Adit - six hundred metres of drainage tunnel travelled entirely by boat.
• The surface machinery - winding gear, pumps and shaft heads in the open-air yard.

When to go

Open all year and a reliable option in bad weather, since the temperature underground sits around ten degrees whatever the season. Routes run on timed guided departures with limited places, so book, especially at weekends and in school holidays. Bring a jacket and shoes with grip. The two routes are in different places and need a car or a taxi between them.

Good to know

Ceilings are low and there is stooping and some water underfoot; anyone tall, claustrophobic or unsteady will not enjoy it. Guiding is mostly in Polish with printed translations. The two routes are sold separately and cost roughly the same each. The above-ground town is unremarkable, and rain leaves the yards muddy.

Nearby

Katowice and its culture quarter are half an hour south, along with the coal mine museum at Zabrze.

Key facts