Gustav Pit (Abterode)
Coordinates: 51 ° 13 ′ 23 ″ N , 9 ° 57 ′ 7 ″ E
The Gustav Grube is a visitor mine about 2 km north-northeast of Abterode in the Werra-Meißner district in North Hesse . It is located at 224 m above sea level not far east of the Berka tributary Kupferbach and the state road L 3335 running in the valley of the brook . A short, approximately 50 m long spur road leads directly north of the "Gasthaus Höllental" from the L 3335 to the east Mine.
history
Copper mining
During the search for silver and gold, copper slate was found at this point and then mined from 1497 until the middle of the 19th century. Only by hand, with a mallet and recovery iron , tunnels several hundred meters long were cut into the mountain and the ore was extracted, which was then smelted in the "smelter", first mentioned in 1538, at the mouth of the Kupferbach in the Berka.
The majority of the miners settled in nearby Abterode between the original core of the settlement around the church of the Abbetesrode provost and the village's first parish church a little to the east outside the village. With the secularization of the provost in 1544, this area was given to the miners on a hereditary lease and has been called the "mountain freedom" ever since.
Heavy spar mining
Barite also occurs in the Gustav mine , with a thickness between one and six meters. This was dismantled from the beginning of the 20th century, initially in an open pit , then from 1928 underground due to technical difficulties in conveying . The barite was extracted between three underground levels in the so-called ridge joint construction using modern drilling and blasting technology and conveyed through an 85 m deep shaft to the upper floor of the tunnel and from there to the surface.
In November 1957, two miners were trapped in a blind shaft by a landslide . After five days they could be rescued through a specially drilled borehole.
The mine was shut down at the turn of the year 1967/68.
Show mine
In 1986 the mine was opened up for public visits through a local initiative and designated as an industrial monument . It is usually open to visitors from March 15th to October 31st, Tuesday to Sunday and on public holidays, from 1:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m., who are guided 360 m into the mountain by a pit guide. The minimum number of participants per group is six. In addition to the guided tour through the tunnels, you can enjoy visiting minerals and rocks, mainly from the local area, as well as old and modern mining equipment ( tough ) in the former mining machine chamber. In addition, a "rescue sledge" commemorates the dramatic rescue operation of the two miners in November 1957.
In 2019 the mine was closed due to defects in the tunnel lighting. With the completion of the necessary renovation work in spring 2020, it will now be accessible to visitors again from the end of April 2020.
Footnotes
- ^ Peer Zietz: Cultural monuments in Hessen. Werra-Meißner-Kreis I. Altkreis Eschwege - 1991. In: State Office for Monument Preservation Hessen (Hrsg.): Monument topography Federal Republic of Germany. Vieweg & Sohn, Braunschweig / Wiesbaden, 1999, ISBN 3-528-06240-1 , p. 247
- ↑ There, on the L 3242 in Höllental , the "Forester's House Schmelzhütte", built around 1900, is today. ( Forsthaus Schmelzhütte, Werra-Meißner-Kreis, in the Historical Ortlexikon Hessen ).
- ^ Wilhelm Bach: Church statistics of the Protestant Church in the Electorate of Hesse. Kassel, 1835, p. 270
- ^ F. Pfister: Small handbook of regional studies of Kurhessen . Hotop, Kassel, 1840, p. 173
- ^ A look into the dark , Werra-Rundschau , March 13, 2014
- ↑ https://www.grube-gustav.de/fileadmin/user_upload/grubegustav/menue/flyer_grube_gustav_2017_web.pdf
- ↑ https://www.gemeinde-meissner.de/verzeichnis/objekt.php?mandat=100765
- ↑ Abterode: Grube Gustav may open in 2020 , Werra-Rundschau , August 7, 2019
- ↑ Grube Gustav reopens - light at the end of the tunnel , Werra-Rundschau , February 21, 2020