Old Mine in Wałbrzych
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Old Mine Science and Art Centre in Wałbrzych is a museum located in the historic Julia Coal Mine. It was opened on 9 November 2014[1] after a major expansion of the Museum of Industry and Technology located there since 1999. The Old Mine Science and Art Centre was included in 2015 on the list of the European Route of Industrial Heritage (ERIH).[2]
The center consists of:
- Museum of Industry and Technology.
- Most of the objects belonging to the former mine were made available to the visitors, including the lamp room, the building of the hoisting machine, the upper part of the Julia mine shaft, mechanical workshops and the mine square with locomotives and transport vehicles. It is planned in the future to provide access to a fragment of the eighteenth-century Fox Adit located at a depth of 30 m (98 ft). The museum can be visited with a guide only; it is handicapped accessible.
- Center of Unique Ceramics in adapted post-industrial buildings,
- Gallery of Contemporary Art,
- Seat of the Wałbrzych Cultural Centre,
- Headquarters of the Wałbrzych Song and Dance Ensemble,
- Headquarters of non-governmental organizations and municipal cultural institutions on the premises of the former Julia coal mine in Wałbrzych.
History
In 1770 a coal mine was registered in the Higher Mining Office in Reichenstein (Złoty Stok) under the name Fuchs, which was formed through the merger of numerous small mines in the area of Weißstein (Biały Kamień) since the 16th century. After the registration of the mining company, the exploitation of coal beds was carried out by surface excavations using adits and shafts. In 1867 a decision was made to deepen the Julius shaft (now called Julia), which ultimately reached a depth of 611 m (2,005 ft). Two years later the second mine shaft was drilled, Ida (now called Sobótka) at a distance of 55 m (180 ft) from the first shaft. Its deepening continued until 1946 when it reached the final depth of 443 m (1,453 ft) and opened five mining levels (ten coal seams). The hoisting equipment consisted of a two-story elevator (the so-called "cage"), which could accommodate two cars per floor. The hoisting capacity was 3 tons. In 1999 the shaft was backfilled with stone over a distance of about 400 m (1,300 ft) (a 50 m (160 ft) section from the surface was kept clear in order to access the stairs to the Fox Adit). In 1907, the mining area was enlarged by the incorporation of the David mine, which extracted coal from the neighbouring Konradów district, followed by the Segen Gottes mine in 1931 (Stary Zdrój district). After the end of World War II the Fuchs mine changed its name to Julia and came under Polish administration. Shortly, from 1946 to 1949, it was called White Stone, then from 1950 to 1993 Thorez (in honor of the French communist Maurice Thorez). In 1993, its name was reverted to Julia. The mine exploited coal deposits of the Wałbrzych strata, and the annual output ranged from 650,000 to 800,000 tons. The mine was declared bankrupt in 1990. The last truck with coal was brought to the surface on 20 September 1996, and on 17 September 1998, the liquidation of underground sections was completed.
Creation of the museum
On 26 August 1999, the Wałbrzych City Council passed a resolution to establish a branch of the Wałbrzych museum by changing the statute.[3] On 31 December of the same year the administration of the city of Wałbrzych transferred the premises of the Julia mining plant on Wysockiego Street free of charge to the museum in order to establish a branch of the Museum of Industry and Technology.[4] On 6 April 2001 the Lower Silesian Voivode transferred the ownership rights to the Julia coal mine (land and buildings with equipment) free of charge to the Wałbrzych commune with a perspective of running the Museum of Industry and Technology.
On 17 September 2004 the Voivodeship Monument Protection Office in Wrocław entered the complex of 14 mine buildings into the register of monuments of the Lower Silesian Voivodeship.[5]
Historical objects
The brick towers of the Julius (now Julia) and Ida (Sobótka) shafts have survived to the present day. They were built in the classic-Renaissance style. Since the 1850s this type of tower was commonly used in deep mines because of its solid structure, which could withstand the weight of the hoisting equipment placed in it and the excavated material. After the Crimean War, this type of tower became known as the Malakoff-Turm (name originating from the Malakov fort, also called Malakhov, in Sevastopol).[6] At the end of the 19th century, in accordance with the then prevailing trends, steel towers were incorporated into the structure (Julius in 1893, Ida in 1903).
During the deepening of the two shafts, boiler house No. 1 was built between them in a form of a tower with surrounding turrets. This three-story building, 15 meters (49 ft) high, was built on a brick foundation. In 1885, the boiler house was decommissioned and the interior of the building was adapted into a bathhouse and laundry. The third floor was used as a platform for the circulation of overhead carts. In 1915 a new bathhouse for miners was built nearby and the rooms near the shafts were used as a bathhouse for women working in the coal sorting plant and as a laundry and shaft storehouses.
In addition to these objects within the area of the former mine one can also find mechanical workshops from 1872, preserved machines and hoisting equipment of the Sobótka shaft from 1912, as well as a sorting plant from 1888 and a washing plant and coal flotation from the years 1902–1914.
