Tourist Mine in Nowa Ruda

On the former Piast mining field of the old Nowa Ruda coal mine, the Underground Tourist Route with the Mining Museum now operates (ul. Obozowa 4). The mine worked until 2000, and its underground galleries have been opened to visitors as a route served by an underground railway — unique in Poland and in Europe, since miners once rode the same wagons to the working faces.

The museum and the surface complex

The visit starts at the Mining Museum, where four halls hold exhibits from every branch of underground mining: machines, safety equipment, blasting charges and escape apparatus. The original dispatch room — once the centre controlling the entire mine — is also open to visitors. On the surface you can see historic furnaces and shaft towers; this is one of the few 19th-century industrial and mining complexes preserved in such good condition.

Underground

The route shows the miners' working conditions and the methods of securing the galleries — which were sometimes no more than 1 m high, in high temperature and humidity. The railway brings you to a shaft, filled in today, down which miners once descended to lower levels; the scene at the lift entrance looks very realistic. The greatest curiosity is the fossilised tree trunks from 250 million years ago — the petrified araucaria found here is a rarity on a global scale. According to mining tradition, the mine is guarded by Skarbnik, the treasurer spirit of the underground.

Practical information

Open daily 9:00 am–4:00 pm; tickets PLN 16 (regular) / PLN 13 (reduced).