The Hut Gallery - Osterwald Visitor Mine and Museum

For more than 300 years, coal mining at Osterwald provided energy for a small but very productive industrial area in the eastern Weserbergland, about 35 km south of Hanover. Salt production, glass manufacture, clay processing and lime distillation were based on the coal mined here. Several sand and limestone quarries also provided a number of jobs and supplied building materials for buildings and roads.

Living testimony to the mining history of the Osterwald is the ‘Hüttenstollen’ (hut gallery), which was built in the middle of the 19th century. Last used between 1945 and 1954, it is now a visitor mine that authentically illustrates the working conditions of the miners at that time. At the same time, the gallery is also a window on the history of the earth. The view stretches back some 140 million years, when the strata were deposited that were mined from the late 16th century onwards.

A small museum complements the underground experience of a guided tour through the gallery. The permanent exhibition offers a lot of information on the local mining tradition. It also focuses on the history of local glassmaking, ceramics production and the regional quarries.

The "Miners' Trail", a thematically prepared and well signposted hiking trail, connects historic mining sites, quarries and the relics of former trades between Osterwald and Bad Münder.