Medieval Mining Village in Złoty Stok

A medieval miner had no electricity to pump water out of the mine – he had his legs. At the Medieval Mining Village in Złoty Stok you can step inside a huge treadwheel and set it turning yourself, then lift a load dozens of times heavier than you could manage alone using a rope-and-pulley system. It is an open-air technology park next to the Gold Mine, where every machine is built at full scale and every one of them really works.

Złoty Stok – a town of gold and arsenic

The village is here for a reason. Złoty Stok (German: Reichenstein) was one of Silesia's most important mining centres: in 1529 there were 145 mines and a dozen or so small smelters. Gold was mined here, and later arsenic ores too, used to make white arsenic; the last mine closed only in 1961. The town enjoyed the status of a free mining town with many privileges, including the right to its own gallows at the entrance from Ząbkowice. The Mining Village, formerly known as the Medieval Technology Park, shows the surface side of this work – the machines used to extract and process ore.

What you'll see

• A treadwheel several metres across – in the Middle Ages it drove the pumps that drained the mine.
• A rope-and-pulley hoist that lets you raise a load dozens of times heavier than you could lift by hand.
• A water-powered ore crusher – loud, powerful and working without electricity.
• Replicas of designs by a Renaissance master, showing how far engineering thinking reached at the time.
• The Executioner's Hut – the host tells tales of the hangman's trade with a wink.
• The Path of Fear – a maze with a spinning tunnel, light and sound effects.
• Small animals in a pen that children can feed and stroke.

How the visit works

The village is visited in a group with a guide who invites everyone to operate the machines – in practice a hands-on physics lesson about friction, pressure and gravity. Groups of up to 50 people go in at a time, and the maximum wait for a Polish-speaking group to form is 45 minutes. An English-speaking guide is available if booked in advance, for a flat fee of PLN 100 per guide. Everything is outdoors, so dress for the weather.

Tickets and hours (as of October 2026)

A ticket for the Village alone costs PLN 42 (reduced PLN 32); children under 4 go free, and the Path of Fear and the Executioner are included. A combined ticket with the Gold Mine and the Ochre Adit offers better value. The Village opens at 9:15; last entry is at 17:00 in summer (1 April–30 September), 16:30 in October and 16:00 in winter (November–March). It is closed at Easter, on 1 November and on 24 and 25 December, among other dates. Tickets are sold at the ticket offices on site.

Tripto tip

Allow about 1–1.5 hours for the Village and most of a day for the whole complex with the mine and the adit. With small children, start with the Village – it is above ground and more hands-on than the underground route. The Path of Fear can be intense for the youngest, so ask the guide what to expect before going in.