If you are going to Ostrava and are interested in the industrial history of this city, you should not miss a tour of the former Michal coal mine in Ostrava-Michálkovice. The raw spaces look as if the miners have never left, as if they were still underground, working away and cutting coal. Today, this National Cultural Monument is included in the list of the UNESCO List of Monuments.
More than 600 m deep coal mine in Ostrava named after court councillor Michael Layer was founded in 1843. From 1913 to 1915, electricity had been installed and it had been generously rebuilt according to the design of architect František Fiala, a pupil of the famous founder of Viennese modern industrial architecture Otto Wagner. The decline of the Michal Mine began in 1993, the wheel on its mining tower definitively came to a halt in 1995.
The new expositions include unique collections, such as the mine surveying exposition, the geologist's office, the first aid exposition and the dispatching centre. The mining area, including the engine room with the original technical equipment, is open to the public. The sightseeing route, following the miner's path from the locker rooms to their own mining pit, is conceived as the last day of work. You can see, for example, a chain locker room, which worked in such a way that the miners hung their civilian clothes on a hanger and using a system of chains pulled them up to the ceiling of the room. Other areas include the meal issuing counter or the so-called "lamp room", where miners were issued their mining lamps. The Michal mine was an example of technological sophistication. The machines had to manage not only the transport of mined coal and the lowering of miners into the depths, but also, for example, the supply of workplaces with air or the pumping of groundwater. As development progressed, the original steam engines were replaced by electric ones.
The new expositions include unique collections, such as the mine surveying exposition, the geologist's office, the first aid exposition and the dispatching centre. The mining area, including the engine room with the original technical equipment, is open to the public. The sightseeing route, following the miner's path from the locker rooms to their own mining pit, is conceived as the last day of work. You can see, for example, a chain locker room, which worked in such a way that the miners hung their civilian clothes on a hanger and using a system of chains pulled them up to the ceiling of the room. Other areas include the meal issuing counter or the so-called "lamp room", where miners were issued their mining lamps. The Michal mine was an example of technological sophistication. The machines had to manage not only the transport of mined coal and the lowering of miners into the depths, but also, for example, the supply of workplaces with air or the pumping of groundwater. As development progressed, the original steam engines were replaced by electric ones.
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