Bergbaumuseum Knappenhaus Unterlaussa

Useful Information

Location:	(47.719424, 14.561007)
Open:
Fee:
Classification:	Bauxite Coal Mine Iron Mine Replica Underground Mine
Light:	Incandescent
Dimension:
Guided tours:
Photography:
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Address:	Bergbaumuseum Knappenhaus Unterlaussa, Tel: +43-.
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

1998	replica of the Blahberg miners' house built.

Geology

The karst bauxite of the Unterlaussa mining district is traditionally explained to have formed at times of tropical and subtropical climate. High weathering rates favoured by wet and dry seasons in warm and humid conditions causes weathering-induced breakdown of aluminosilicates in the parental material. A maturation phase creates bauxite by removal of Fe and Si while enriching Al. There is growing evidence that microbial activity plays a major role. The karst below the bauxite provided sufficient drainage at weakly alkaline conditions. It also protected the bauxite against erosion. But it seems current research reveals new aspects of these processes.

Description

The Bergbaumuseum Knappenhaus Unterlaussa (Knappenhaus Unterlaussa Mining Museum) is an abbreviation; the official name is Bergbau und Heimatmuseum-Knappenhaus Unterlaussa (Knappenhaus Unterlaussa Mining and Local History Museum). The replica of the "Knappenhaus vom Blahberg" in the village of Unterlaussa was built on the occasion of the 1998 Upper Austrian Provincial Exhibition "Land of Hammers - Heimat Eisenwurzen". Given its mining history, it made sense to open the building to the public as a mining museum. The Eisenwurzen region has a wide variety of raw material deposits, including jet, hard coal, iron ore and bauxite. As there are very few bauxite deposits in Austria, and bauxite is needed for aluminium production, this is the main theme of the exhibition. However, it is completely unclear to us why they claim that this is the only bauxite deposit in Austria. Either the organisers are so incompetent that they do not know that there is also bauxite in Glanegg in Carinthia and in Großgmain in Salzburg, for example. However, we suspect that this is one of those popular fake superlatives. We addressed this topic a long time ago as Smile Fake Statistics. The same probably applies to show mines.

The museum has an exhibition on 4,000 years of mining in Europe, which was provided by Dr Oskar Kortan. A video shows authentic stories from former miners and residents of the mining settlement of Weißwasser. The exhibition of miners' tools, known as 'Gezähe', is more traditional. Another topic is the material cable car, which was built for mining and for transporting raw materials. The museum also has a replica of a section of mine tunnel, a mine replica.

The mining industry had the longest material cableways in Central Europe. In the 1940s, this mining area had the longest material cableway in Europe. A total of 89 supports and a length of 14 km, with branch lines even exceeding 18 km, transported . It transported the ore to the loading station at Weißenbach an der Enns railway station. The cableway was approved in March 1943 and went into operation in August 1944. The nature conservation regulations were exceptionally strict for the time. Built by the Leipzig-based company BLEICHERT-Transportanlagen GmbH, it implemented the "Zenith system", named after the type of coupling used on the cable car trolleys (Zenith coupling). The cable car system was divided into three sections. Section 1 covered the route from the central station in Weißwasser (Z station) to the drive station in Unterlaussa (A station). Section 2 ran between the A station and the unloading station in Weißenbach (E station). Section 3 covered the route from Weißwasser (Z station) to Winkel station (W station) at the Präfing mining area, Kopf station (K station) and the Gräser mining area. Sections 1 and 2 were powered by the drive station in Unterlaussa via a 64 kW three-phase motor running at 975 revolutions per minute. Section 3 was supplied by the K station with 44 kW/975 rpm. The cable car supports were made of wood, which limited the transport capacity to 20 t/h. However, the cable car was only in operation three days a week. Two days were needed for maintenance and repairs.