This heritage park is in the district of Zabrze by the town’s main street. In 1993 the Museum of Coal Mining in Zabrze created the “Queen Luiza” Mining Heritage Park on the site of the oldest coal mine, the “Queen Luiza” Mine in Upper Slask, which was founded in 1791. The basic layout of the mine from the second half of the 19th century has been preserved at the heritage site along with several of the buildings and machinery.

The open-air museum is made up of two parts: the first being the overground buildings around the old “Carnall” Mine Shaft and the underground tunnels of the no longer in existence “Wilhelmina” Mine Shaft. The most valuable relic in the heritage park is the steam-driven hoisting machine with a power output of 2000Hp, built in Germany in 1915, which until 1990 operated at the “Carnall” Mine Shaft which reached a depth of 503m. The machine is no longer used to extract ore from the ground but tourists can see a display of its operation and wonder at the action of the mighty pistons and cylinders and the powerful flywheel.

The second part of the museum is at 43 Sienkiewicz Street, where excavations dating, in parts, back to the 19th century and totalling 1560m can be visited. Here mining machinery can be seen in operation including a multifunction mining machine at work on a coal face.

Museum of Coal Mining – Zabrze (woj. Slaskie)

www.muzeumgornictwa.pl