Norwegian Mining Museum

The domicile of the Norwegian Mining Museum in Kongsberg.

The Norwegian Mining Museum ( Norwegian Norsk Bergverksmuseum ) is the Norwegian National Museum of Mining. The museum is located in Kongsberg in the former Smeltehytte of 1844 at the Hyttegata 3 and has its extension to the old silver mine Kongsberg (Kongsberg Sølvverk) in Saggrenda 59.63 °  N , 9.6 °  O . Through its various exhibitions, the museum conveys the 335-year history of mining in Kongsberg.

Museum departments

Entrance to Kongens gruve, in Saggrenda near Kongsberg

The old trolley of the mine railway was used to transport people in the Christian 7th tunnel in the first half of the 18th century. The exhibit can be seen in the King's Pit in Saggrenda, Kongsberg.

Driving art , in the Kongens gruve, Saggrenda, Kongsberg .

The Kongs Gruve in Saggrenda

One of the exhibits in the mine museum

The museum building in Kongsberg also houses other various other sections that are not directly concerned with the subject of mining. These include the Royal Mint Museum , the Kongsberg Industrial Museum , the Kongsberg Arms Factory Museum belonging to the former Kongsberg Våpenfabrikk and the Kongsberg Ski Museum , which share the same premises with the Mining Museum. In addition, the Norwegian Mining Museum also includes the branch in Saggrenda with a museum in the former mining buildings, the Kongsberg silver mine there , the houses and workers' barracks ("Sakkerhusene") near the pits and the post- mining landscape of Knutefjell . The museum also offers special hiking and mining tours around Kongsberg and the surrounding area.

Royal Coin Museum

The royal mint was founded in 1686 by King Christian V and was an important part of the Kongsberg silver mine until its closure in 1958. The mint was run by the Norwegian Treasury from 1962 until it was later transferred to Norges Bank and in 2001 as a limited company to Samlerhuset AS and Mint of Finland Ltd. was sold. The museum collections remained completely untouched by the sales. The current Coin Museum in the Norwegian Mining Museum has specimen copies of almost all coins from the time of Christian IV to the present day.

Kongsberg Ski Museum

The Kongsberg Ski Museum , also located at the same location , was founded on the initiative of the Norwegian skier Birger Ruud . The museum provides information on the history of the ski through the different ages, especially the Norwegian and especially the Kongsberg ski history, as well as skiing from the mid-1920s to the 1950s and now.

Arms Factory Museum Kongsberg

Most recently, the former Kongsberg Våpenfabrikk (Kongsberg weapons factory) was included at the site of the mine museum . The museum is relatively small, but has a large number of elaborate exhibits. The museum provides information on developments in the arms and armaments industry up to the present day.

Sakkerhusene

Sakkerhusene is a workers' housing estate in Saggrenda with the former houses and barracks that were inhabited by miners and commuters until the end of mining in Kongsberg. The buildings of the residential complex have different functions (up to a cafeteria for the employees of the museums and the silver mines). Some rooms in the building are still furnished as they were when the mine was still in operation and can be viewed by tourists on special tours.

Silver mine

Perhaps the most important part of the Norwegian Mining Museum is the former silver mines of Kongsberg Sølvverk in Saggrenda, which is about 7 km west of Kongsberg.

In the summer season, visitors can accompanied to the former silver mine, the Christian VII. - tunnels and the largest silver mine, the Kongens Gruve (Königsgrube), with the former mine train and track cars enter. The pit can be viewed and driven by tourists up to 2,300 meters into the mountain 340 meters below the surface. One of the highlights in the silver mine is the old art of driving , which can still be set in motion, as it used to be common in the silver mine for the miners.

Outside the museums and the silver mines as well as the Sakkerhusene settlement, visitors can take part in various other activities in the summer, such as the old mining technique of setting fire .

literature

• BI Berg: Gruveteknikk ved Kongsberg Sølvverk 1623-1914, STS report no. 37. NTNU publisher, 1998 Trondheim - Berg, BI
• Kongsberg Regions , 2011, published by Kongsberg Turistservice.

Web links

• Own web presence at norsk-bergverksmuseum.no
• Norsk Bergverksmuseum on kulturnett.no
• Kongsberg silver mine on hoebue.de
• Norsk Bergverksmuseum in Kongsberg on bvm.museum.no
• Driving skills - From the Harz Mountains to the world: Driving skills in Scandinavia on mineral-exploration.com (German; PDF; 1.6 MB)
• Sølvgruvene on kulturnett.no
• Norsk Bergverksmuseum on snl.no in the store norske leksikon (Norwegian)

Individual evidence

1. ^ Anne Marit Godal: Norsk Bergverksmuseum. In: Store norske leksikon . Oslo

Coordinates: 59 ° 39 ′ 57.8 "  N , 9 ° 39 ′ 2.8"  E