Steam Machinery Open-Air Museum in Tarnowskie Góry

The Steam Machinery Open-Air Museum in Tarnowskie Góry is an outdoor collection of machines and steam locomotives, set up next to the headframe building of the Anioł shaft on the grounds of the Silver Mine. It opened in 1976 together with the mine, and today it covers about a hectare.

What you can see here

The mine's website speaks of nearly 30 steam-driven exhibits, while other sources say 25. They include steam locomotives, a portable steam engine, a road roller, a railway crane, a compressor, a generating set, steam pumps and winding engines. The collection was assembled by the Association of Friends of the Tarnowskie Góry Land, which owns the open-air museum and the mine.

Apart from the machines, the grounds hold things from the old mining industry: 19th-century boundary stones of mining fields, a miners' chute by the building of the former engine house, and a wooden water wheel 4 m in diameter. The mine's website describes it as a reconstruction of a 17th-century wheel which, before the age of steam, drove structures for producing metals.

Why steam

The location next to the mine is justified: according to sources on the development of Tarnowskie Góry mining, from the end of the 18th century the introduction of steam technology, modern for its time, was decisive. The mine itself is a fragment of the workings of the Fryderyk Royal Mine, whose corridors, galleries and drainage adits total more than 150 km. You can read more about the underground in the entries for the Silver Mine in Tarnowskie Góry and the Fryderyk Royal Mine.

The miniature railway

A small railway with a gauge of 184 mm runs around the open-air museum. It was opened to tourists in 2015 during the Industriada, and its route is about 500 m long. In 2014 the exhibits were restored.

Practical information

• Address: ul. Szczęść Boże 81, Tarnowskie Góry, behind the headframe building of the Anioł shaft.
• Admission: according to the mine's website, the open-air museum grounds are accessible during the opening hours of the Silver Mine, without a guide, and admission to the open-air museum is free.
• Rules: climbing on the exhibits is strictly forbidden.
• Check the hours and any changes on the mine's website before your visit. Sooner or later it is worth visiting the nearby tailings heap.