Besucherbergwerk Kleinenbremen

Useful Information

Location:	Kleinenbremen, Porta Westfalica.
Open:	All year Tue-Sun, Hol, 10-17, last tour 16. [2011]
Fee:	Mine with museum: Adults EUR 8, Children (6-15) EUR 4, Children (0-5) free, Students EUR 6, Family (2+2) EUR 20. Groups (25+): Adults EUR 7, School Pupils EUR 4. Museum only: Adults EUR 4, Children EUR 2. [2011]
Classification:	Iron Mine
Light:	Incandescent Electric Light System
Dimension:	T=9-11 °C
Guided tours:
Photography:
Accessibility:
Bibliography:
Address:	Besucher-Bergwerk & Museum Kleinenbremen gGmbH, Rintelner Straße 396, 32457 Porta Westfalica, Tel: +49-5722-90223. E-mail:
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

1881	mine opened.
1960	mining ended.
1988	opened as a show mine.

Geology

The iron ores at Porta Westfalica are sedimentary deposits of iron oxides. The most important seam is named Klippenflöz and is up to 12 m thick. It is stil mined in the nearby Grube Wohlverwahrt-Nammen. The ores are part of the upper Jurassic which is locally called Korallenoolith. They are about 140Ma old. An oolith is composed of small globules, some milimeters in diameter, which were formed in the sea water by the concentric accumulation of limetone around small sand corns.

Kleinenbremen is the only pace in Nordrhein-Westfalen where irone ores of the Korallenoolith are mined. Inside the Besucherbergwerk Kleinenbremen are the best outcrops of the state in this formation. Because of this the place was declared a Nationales Geotop (national geotope).

Description

The Besucherbergwerk Kleinenbremen (show mine Kleinenbremen) has two parts, the Museum für Bergbau und Erdgeschichte (museum for mining and geology) and the underground tour through the abandoned iron ore mine Grube Wohlverwahrt. Once 40 to 50 tons of iron ore were mined daily, and the mine reached a depth of 324 m. Up to 550 people were working at the mine. On the guided tour the visitors enter the mine on a mine train which is pulled by a diesel engine. The same train once carried 40 miners into the mine, cramped into 10 narrow waggons. One of the highlights of the tour is the Blaue Lagune (blue lagoon), an underground lake which forem inside the mine from ground water.