Silesia, Silesian Voivodeship
Thursday, 05 November 2026 PL / EN
Places with character

Blachówka Quarry

Bytom
About Blachówka Quarry

A former open-cast dolomite mine, worked from 1856 until the 1990s, not open to tourists.

The Blachówka dolomite mine is a former open-cast mine in Bytom-Sucha Góra and Tarnowskie Góry-Bobrowniki. Extraction was carried out here from 1856 until the 1990s. Today the quarry is not open to tourists.

History of the mine

The works, named after a small mining settlement, began operating in 1856 as the first open-cast dolomite mine in Silesia. At first iron ore was extracted, and when it ran out, dolomite; in 1889 35,000 tonnes of this rock were extracted. The customers were the Julia ironworks in Bytom and the Hermina ironworks in Gliwice. In the interwar period the output was also sorted by women, and transport was by narrow-gauge railway. After 1945 the works were nationalised, and from 1951 they came under the Tarnowskie Góry Dolomite Works. In the 1960s a lamp room, a bathhouse and administrative buildings were built, and extraction was reduced in the 1970s because of the protection of the nearby Segiet reserve. Liquidation began in 1993.

The site today

What remains of the mine is the structure of a mill for crushing stone and the quarry itself, from which one can walk to the washing-waste spoil heap in Tarnowskie Góry. The workings take the form of a gorge up to 60 metres deep, and within them are five entrances to former underground workings in which galena was mined. The entrance to the Blachówka Zachodnia adit is barred. In 1995 a documentation site of about 6 ha was established here, and in January 2023 most of the quarry was incorporated into the Segiet nature reserve. The underground workings are protected in the Natura 2000 area Tarnowskie Góry-Bytom Underground, and bats hibernate in the old shafts.

The neighbouring area

On the reclaimed part there is the Sport Dolina Bytom ski centre with lifts opened in 2002. Next to it lies the Segiet nature reserve, and in the area the washing-waste spoil heap in Tarnowskie Góry.

Practical information

  • The quarry is not open to tourists and remains unsecured, and the rock slopes are brittle and dangerous.
  • Entering the site is not recommended; it can be viewed from the area around the ski centre and from the trails in the reserve, after checking the current rules.
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