Schaubergwerk St. Anna am Freudenstein

Besucherbergwerk Zschorlau


Useful Information

Location: Talstraße 1, 08321 Zschorlau.
(50.582824, 12.658218)
Open: All year Wed 16, Sat 10.
[2023]
Fee: Adults EUR 10, Children (6-14) EUR 6.
Big Tour: Adults 20.
[2023]
Classification: MineSilver Mine MineCobalt Mine MineQuartz Mine
Light: LightIncandescent Electric Light System
Dimension: T=8 °C.
Guided tours: D=1.5 h.
Photography: allowed
Accessibility: no
Bibliography: IG Historischer Bergbau Zschorlau 1989 e. V., Talstraße 1, 08321 Zschorlau, Tel: +49-157-59-62-81-06. E-mail:
Address: Schaubergwerk "St. Anna am Freudenstein" Zschorlau e.V. 1989, Hubertusstraße 74, 08321 Zschorlau, Tel: +49-3771-23908. E-mail: contact
As far as we know this information was accurate when it was published (see years in brackets), but may have changed since then.
Please check rates and details directly with the companies in question if you need more recent info.

History

1474 begin of mining at Freudenstein.
1492 erstmals urkundlich erwähnt.
1509 Pferdegöpel (horse-drawn pithead) built.
1517 shaft reaches the bottom of the valley, construction of the drainage tunnel Unterer Troster Stolln begins.
1527 highest documented yield, 1 Kux yielded 60 guilders.
1527 Unterer Troster Stolln completed, wheelhouse with Wasserkunst (water wheel) built to drain the lower workings.
1649 Erasmus Schindler receives from the Saxon Elector Johann Georg I. the privilege to build a blue colour plant on the Mulde near Bockau.
1855 production of cobalt blue is discontinued in favour of ultramarine, which is produced on a synthetic basis.
1873 mine closed.
1989 mining enthusiasts found an association and reopen the mine.
1990 show mine opened.

Geology

The mine is located in the Schneeberg mining district on the north-western edge of the large and complex Erzgebirge anticlinal zone. The rocks were deposited in the Ordovician, younger Silurian and Devonian rocks are mainly found in the Lößnitz-Zwönitzer Mulde. During the Variscan orogeny, the rocks were folded and pushed together, and fault zones were formed by the tectonic movement. Metamorphosis also took place, transforming the predominant mudstones in the Zschorlau area into slate and phyllite. At the end of the mountain formation (330-295 Ma), magma emerged in two bursts, which today forms the Eibenstock-Nejdek granite massif west of Zschorlau and the Gleesberg granite. The heat of the magma caused further metamorphosis, which transformed the surrounding slate into hornfels. However, it is also the cause of the formation of the ore deposits through hydrothermal solutions and greisen formation. Subsequently, weathering processes near the surface caused ore minerals to be dissolved and precipitated again under suitable conditions. This cementation zone is enriched, locally called Reicherze (rich ores). Towards the depth, the veins become less profitable and mining is no longer rentable.

Description

The St. Anna am Freudenstein show mine has probably been renamed the Besucherbergwerk Zschorlau (Zschorlau show mine). It consists of two mines, the Sankt Anna Fundgrube and the Troster Stolln. The mining district was famous for its rich silver deposits, but cobalt and quartz were also mined. The St. Anna am Freudenstein mine is one of the largest and most important mines in the Zschorlau mining district. The Zschorlau mining district is part of the once world-famous Schneeberg mining district.

This is medieval mining, and it has been preserved or reconstructed as faithfully as possible. The horse-drawn pithead has been rebuilt and the ore wash has been excavated. The mine, which has been preserved in its original state, offers an insight into the hard working life and the technical skills of our ancestors. Visitors are equipped with a cloak, boots and a miner's lamp. On the tour, you can see the 12 m high wheelhouse, which was hammered out with mallets and iron, and the mighty ore workings.

Mining began at the top of the Freudenstein and then followed the silver ore gangues into the depths. When the bottom of the valley was reached in 1517, the construction of the Unterer Troster Stolln was begun as an adit. This took 16 years, but when it was completed, the water flowed out of the mine and it became possible to operate a Wasserkunst (water wheel). For this purpose, the 12 m high wheelhouse was built using fire setting and hammer and iron. A wooden waterwheel was operated with water which was channelled into the mine and then flowed back out through the adit. This water wheel now pumped the mine water from deeper parts of the mine and thus enabled mining below the valley floor.

As usual in the Ore Mountains, however, the silver content decreased towards the depth. Instead, the mining of cobalt and bismuth ore and finally quartz became economically interesting. In the Middle Ages, cobalt blue was the only blue colour that could be produced economically and was therefore supplied as far away as Italy. Zschorlau is home to what is probably the world's oldest paint factory still in production, Schindlerswerk GmbH & Co. KG, which produced blue cobalt pigments at the time. Quartz was mined because it was used to stretch the cobalt. At the end of mining, tungsten ore was extracted for a short time.

Mining was carried out with interruptions from 1474 to 1873, i.e. for almost 400 years. The mine was then closed. It was not examined by Wismut SDAG, obviously the probability of finding uranium was not given. 120 years later, in 1989, mining enthusiasts founded an association and reopened the mine. Since 1990, the mine has been run as a show mine. Normal guided tours of 1.5 hours are offered, as well as a long guided tour, by appointment only.

The huge chamber which is called Quarzhöhle was developed and finally opened to the public in 1999. It belongs to the so-called Quarzzeche (quartz mine). It is used for performances by the Traditionelles Marionettentheater (traditional puppet theatre) of the Kressig-Dombrowsky family from Engertsdorf near Altenburg in Thuringia. Mettenschichten, traditional miners meals, are held here every year, and it is also used for wedding ceremonies. In 1999, an episode of the German crime series Tatort named Fluch des Bernsteinzimmers (Curse of the Amber Room) was also filmed in Zschorlau, in and around the show mine. It is an episode with the detectives Ehrlicher and Kain.