The Idrija Mercury Mine

Mercury was found at Idrija in the fifteenth century and the mine that followed became one of the two largest in the world, listed by UNESCO together with Almadén in Spain for the shared history of the trade that supplied the metal used to extract silver in the Americas. Visits go underground through Anthony's Shaft, one of the oldest mine entrances in Europe, past the chapel where miners prayed before each shift, into low galleries where the guides explain how the ore was found, worked and roasted, and the human cost of handling a metal that poisons slowly. Above ground stands the kamšt, an enormous wooden water wheel built in 1790 to pump the workings, among the largest of its kind preserved anywhere. The town's other export was bobbin lace, made by the miners' wives and still taught at a school here.

What you actually see

• Anthony's Shaft - the underground tour through one of Europe's oldest mine entrances.
• The miners' chapel - the underground chapel at the start of the galleries.
• The kamšt - the huge 1790 wooden water wheel that drained the mine.
• Idrija lace - the bobbin lace tradition, taught and sold in the town.

When to go

Year-round, as everything is underground or indoors; tours run at set times several times a day and are worth checking in advance, particularly out of season. The lace festival in June fills the town. It is about twelve degrees underground whatever the weather.

Honest expectations

The underground tour involves stooping in low galleries, uneven wet floors and about an hour and a half on your feet, which does not suit everyone. Tours run to a timetable and in Slovenian unless an English one is scheduled, so check. The town itself is a modest post-industrial place, and the mine and the lace are the reasons to come rather than the streets.

Nearby

The Vipava valley and its wine are south; Ljubljana is an hour east.