Historic Silver Mine

Getting to Historic Silver Mine was much difficult than in Nikiszowiec Settlement or Wilson Shaft Gallery. Of course those two places were quite close to my flat and silver mine is in Tarnowskie Góry, but still it’s difficult to get there from the Tarnowskie Góry also. I will try to write my long journey in a short way.

  After gathering information about Historic Silver Mine and checking all the websites (http://www.kopalniasrebra.pl/EN/  official website), I decided to go there. First of all, I had to book a ticket.  I called at the office, but they told me that I had to pay for four people (168 zl) if I wanted foreign language guide tour. I gave them my number and asked them if they would have English language tour, I would join them. On Friday someone called and told me that there was a tour , so I went there, but before leaving, I visited Informational Centre and the lady gave me direct bus timeline and a lot of leaflets. So I went in Tarnowskie Góry by 820 bus and after 1 hour and 15 minutes I was there. When I got directly to that street where the museum should have been, I realized that this lady from informational centre mixed something and gave me the wrong address. She gave the address of travel agency, where you can book your trips. It was raining like cats and dogs and I started searching for Local Tourist Informational Centre. Finally I found it and these two kind ladies, who worked there, where not at all surprised when I told them that I was lost. They told me that it is very difficult to get to Historic Silver Mine without your own car. The only bus which is going there has very rare timeline during the day. They gave me a map of the city and the bus schedule. There was not point to go there because it was too late so I came back to Katowice. Next trip to Tarnowskie Góry  was successful because guide from Historic Silver Mine took me from TarnowskieGóry to the museum by his car.

 We came a little bit earlier so I had time to observe the surrounding. Museum has parking lot, a shop where you can by many interesting things, but unfortunately when I decided to enter,  it was closed. Also there is a cafe where you can eat an ice-cream. In the yard steam engines were exhibited. For me it’s really nothing special, but for somebody who likes engineering, it’s a really interesting place. To  understand what it is you should know Polish because everything was written only in Polish.  Then my group members came and I joined them. This kind man who took me there was our guide. He explained everything to us in details and I must also mention that he had a very good sense of humour. Mine tour begins at museum of mining of metal-ores in the over-shaft building. Tools are exhibited there by which miners were working in different time. You can also see what kind of techniques they used for gaining silver. We saw a short video about it and also tourist commercial about TarnowskieGóry and what kind of attractions are there. This commercial had Polish subtitle but our guide was translating.  Then we went down by elevator 40 meters deep. In mine we met another group and guides told each other “Szczęść Boże”. I was wondering why they told this word and our guide explained that when miners are meeting each other in mine they are greeting each other in such a way. In English it means “God bless you”. The tour was very interesting. There are different kinds of galleries, some of them has very low ceiling and we had to walk like ducks. We saw there natural whole and a lot of different kinds of mushrooms which are not edible. Our guide showed us a place where there is preserved silver and advised us to touch it with the hand and make a wish. I did so and hope it will soon come true. Then we had a trip by boat on distance of about 270 meters long. The tour time of museum and the underground tourist nearly took 2 hours.  So if you are interested to see natural environment of the obtained silver you should visit this place, but you should book it in advance and if you are lucky you may get there easily.