Latest News:
15.05.13
ERIH Annual Conference 2013 - Save the date - Call for papers now open
ERIH Annual Conference 2013 – Back in the Ruhr Subject:...
15.04.13
ERIH Board meeting in Katowice/Poland
On invitation of the Silesian Voivodeship the ERIH board met in Katowice/Poland and discussed with...
01.03.13
Review of the ERIH Annual Conference 2012
More than 100 delegates from 15 European Countries attended the ERIH Conference 2012 in September...
The treasures of the Earth: European Theme Route Mining
Coal from European and American collieries was the universal fuel during the Industrial Revolution. Nonetheless technical inventions in mining played a relatively insignificant role. The main cause was the ongoing abundance of workers. Colliery owners were able to attain higher outputs simply by employing more workers. For the same reason they were able to postpone any improvements to the catastrophic working conditions for a long time.
I |
Abbadia San Salvatore | Abbadia San Salvatore Mining Museum |
 |
Piazzale R Rosare 2 | Abbadia San Salvatore | Italy |
| Abbadia San Salvatore is a town of about 7,000 people, 70 km south of Sienna and west of the Autostrada and railway from Florence to Rome. It was founded in the mid-8th century, and takes its name fro... more >> |
GB |
Aberdare | Cynon Valley Museum and Art Gallery |
 |
Depot RoadGadlys | CF44 8DL Aberdare | Great Britain |
| The Museum tells the story of the social history of the Cynon Valley from 1800 to the present. Audio visual presentations in the gallery include films on the iron industry around 1830 and the Miner’... more >> |
I |
Abies Alba | Siele mercury mine |
|
Vicolo di Castello, 12- | 12 Abies Alba | Italy |
| The Siele Mine, like that at Abbadia San Salvatore, was used to extract cinnabar, the mineral from which mercury is obtained, from deposits within Mount Amiato, an extinct volcano that rises to a heig... more >> |
B |
Aiseau-Presles | Trail of Pit Heaps |
|
Rue du Centre 78 | 6250 Aiseau-Presles | Belgium |
| Aisneau is a small community about 6 km east of Charleroi which is the headquarters of La Chaine des Terrils, an organisation that protects, conserves and interprets pit heaps across Wallonia from Ber... more >> |
P |
Alcoutim | Parque Mineiro da Cova dos Mouros |
|
Vanquiros | Alcoutim | Portugal |
| Copper has been mined since prehistoric times in the region of Alcoutim, a Portuguese town on the River Guardiana, which is the frontier with Spain, 65 km north-east of Faro. Exploitation on an indust... more >> |
E |
Almadén (Cuidad Real) | Mining Park of Almaden |
|
Cerco de San Teodoro | 13400 Almadén (Cuidad Real) | Spain |
| Almaden is a town located 589 m above sea level, 200 km south of Madrid and about the same distance north-east of Seville. For more than two millennia it has been one of Europe’s principal sources o... more >> |
B |
Amay | Les Maitres du Feu - Route du Feu |
|
Rue de Bende 5 | B-4540 Amay | Belgium |
| The contrast could scarcely be greater: the little town of Amay, with its old town centre, narrow alleyways, mansions and cloisters situated idyllically in the Mass valley, in the shadows of the massi... more >> |
GB |
Amlwch | Mynydd Parys and Porth Amlwch |
 |
The Sail Loft, Porth Amlwch | LL68 9DB Amlwch | Great Britain |
| As long ago as the Bronze Age people knew that the North Wales mountain of Mynydd Parys contained copper. Just how much was lying untouched in the ground, however, only came to light in 1768. This had... more >> |
F |
Arc-et-Senans | La Saline royale d’Arc-et-Senans |
|
Saline royale | F 25610 Arc-et-Senans | France |
| The saltworks at Arc-et-Senans is one of the most spectacular industrial monuments in Europe. It was built between 1775 and 1779 on the fringe of the forest of Chaux, since supplies of wood for fuel w... more >> |
F |
Argentella | Argentella Silver Mine |
|
Argentella | France |
| The Argentella silver mine lies on the bay of Crovani on the west coast of Corsica, within the district of Calinzana. The mine was a source of argentiferous galena (i.e. silver-bearing lead ore) and w... more >> |
GB |
Ashington | Woodhorn Northumberland Museum and Archives |
|
Queen Elizabeth II Country Park | NE63 9YF Ashington | Great Britain |
| The museum at Woodhorn Colliery houses one of the most significant collections in Europe of paintings by workers who had no formal training in art. In the early twentieth century some miners from pits... more >> |
GR |
Athens | Mineralogical Museum of Lavrion |
|
Heroon Polytechneiou Square | 34195 Athens | Greece |
| The lead and silver mines of Lavrion, on the Greek mainland south of Athens, were important in classical antiquity and in more recent centuries, and were worked in the 19th century by a Greek and a F... more >> |
F |
Aumetz | Iron ore-mine museum of Aumetz |
|
Rue Saint Léger de Montbrillais | 57110 Aumetz | France |
| There´s no steel without coke. It was only when coke began to be used in 1769 that "Minette" (iron ore with a relatively small proportion of iron) really began to pay off as a raw material for making... more >> |
A |
Bad Bleiberg | The Terra Mystica and Terra Montana show mines |
|
Bleiberg-Nötsch 91 | 9531 Bad Bleiberg | Austria |
| There is evidence that lead (with some zinc) was mined at Bleiberg [‘Blei’ is the German word for lead] 10 km west of Villach, from the early 14th century. From the late 15th century the mines wer... more >> |
D |
Bad Dürrenberg | The Graduation Tower and the Borlach Museum |
|
Borlachplatz 1 | 06231 Bad Dürrenberg | Germany |
| The director of the Electoral State of Saxony Saline Baths in Dürrenberg, Johann Gottfried Borlach, was a stubborn man. He had people drilling for saline sources for 19 years. Finally, on 15th Septem... more >> |
