Tarnowskie Góry Lead-Silver-Zinc Mine and its Underground Water Management System

The Tarnowskie Góry entry on the UNESCO World Heritage List is not a single mine but a group of 28 post-industrial sites connected with the extraction of lead, silver and zinc ores. They lie in Tarnowskie Góry, Bytom and Zbrosławice, and their common element is an underground drainage system, one of the greatest achievements of underground hydraulic engineering.

What the listing includes

The listing includes shafts, mining galleries, and drainage and transport adits from the 16th century onwards, as well as surface installations and post-mining landscapes. The adits include the Fryderyk Deep Adit (Sztolnia Głęboka Fryderyk) and the Boże Wspomóż Adit, and the shafts include Pokój, Bohr and Staszic. The complex also includes a water station, and the total length of the underground passages exceeds 150 kilometres. The listing was made in 2017 at a session of the World Heritage Committee in Kraków.

Where the silver in Tarnowskie Góry came from

Ore extraction continued here for centuries, until the deposits were exhausted. In 1784 the first silver deposits were found in the Rudolphine shaft, which gave an impulse to the development of industry in Upper Silesia. The Fryderyk Deep Adit, 17 kilometres long, was built in 1821-1834 and drained water from the mines. The Staszic water station dates from 1884.

What you can see with your own eyes

Several sites on the list are open to visitors. The Silver Mine in Tarnowskie Góry at ul. Szczęść Boże 81 offers a guided route with a boat trip and multimedia, and we write about it in a separate entry: Silver Mine in Tarnowskie Góry. On ul. Repecka is the Black Trout Adit (Sztolnia Czarnego Pstrąga), with an underground boat ride.

On the surface you can see the complex of a former mine described in a separate entry: Royal Fryderyk Mine. The history of the town and of mining is shown by the Museum in Tarnowskie Góry.

Practical information

• The listing consists of scattered sites in three municipalities, so it is worth planning a trip around one or two accessible points rather than the whole list.
• The underground routes have their own rules of entry and age limits, given by the operator. Check current dates and reservations on the kopalniasrebra.pl website.
• Details of the listing and the list of its components are presented on the unesco.tarnowskiegory.pl portal.