Hochfeld show mine

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Location of the mine on Bruneck - 30-47 - O. + U. Sulzbach Th

The Hochfeld show mine is a show mine in the market town of Neukirchen am Großvenediger in the Untersulzbachtal in the Austrian state of Salzburg .

history

Although copper ore mining in the Untersulzbachtal was first mentioned in writing as early as 1525, it was not until 1537 that the name Hochfeld was found. The quality of the ore extracted was good, but the quantity was low. Upper days already existed stamp mills , Bergschmiede and mountain lodges.

Various trades worked in the Untersulzbachtal with interruptions , including merchants from Augsburg. In 1745 a large fire destroyed the day buildings, in 1761 buildings were torn away by a flood and transport routes were destroyed. Due to its high profits, Mühlbacher Bergbau was able to invest in copper ore mining on the Hochfeld after 1780 through new development work and brought Hochfeld to its heyday. The annual output was up to 25 t of copper. In 1758 8/9 shares of the district were already in the possession of the Prince Archbishop of Salzburg , who then took over the last ninth in 1781. In 1805 all mining facilities fell to Austria , in 1810 for a short time to Bavaria and were called "Königlich-Bayerischer Kupfer Bergbau Untersulzbach".

The mining industry, which had become unprofitable, was taken over by a private individual in 1855, but closed two years later. Two more attempts were made to profitably mine copper in Hochfeld: from 1909 to 1928 and 1946 to 1954. Then copper ore mining was finally stopped.

The creation of the show mine

In 1982, Hans Lerch entered the St. Martin tunnel with a group of people interested in mining. Lerch asked the Salzburg Mining Authority whether this tunnel was suitable for a visitor operation. An official from the Mining Authority drove through the tunnel and determined that visitors could be admitted in terms of mining and safety, provided certain safety measures were carried out expertly. In January 1985 the "Zukunftskollegium Nationalpark Hohe Tauern Neukirchen" was founded as a sponsoring association for the national park activities in Neukirchen am Großvenediger. The future college dealt with the expansion of the Samerhof stable into an information center and with the historical mining in the Untersulzbachtal. On July 3, 1986, in consultation between the Zukunftskollegium, the community of Neukirchen am Großvenediger , the national park administration and the Natural History Museum in Vienna, concrete measures were taken to create a geological trail including the Knappenwand , the Blauwand tunnels and the historic Hochfeld copper mine.

Project planning

In December 1986 Robert Seemann presented a project description. In 1987 the approval of the Austrian Federal Forests came with the condition that a lease agreement had to be concluded before the start of construction work, which was only concluded five years later. In August 1987, the district administration approved Zell am See , the alignment of the St.-Martin-tunnel, the construction of a suspension bridge and the preparations for Broken subjugation of the Jeronimos Erbstollens. The search for the buried mouth hole in the tunnel began. The engineers Hans Lerch and Hans Struber began planning the suspension bridge that was to lead to the mouth hole in the St. Martin tunnel. The mouth of the Hieronymus Erbstollen was made more accessible and the heavily broken front section of the tunnel was secured with dry stone walls and a reinforced concrete ceiling.

In 1989 the Hieronymus Erbstollen was drained and the tunnel water was discharged into the Untersulzbach. Workers from the Work and Environment Association, a social work project for the employment and reintegration of the long-term unemployed into the labor market, began with the difficult clearing and filling of the tunnel. This work had to be stopped due to the lack of professional qualifications of the workers.

Instead, they turned to the St. Martin tunnel and the construction of the old mountain smithy . With the help of torrent and avalanche control, a material ropeway was built from the forest road to the old mountain forge. At the same time, Dr. Seemann and his employees to examine the old structures at the mouth of the St. Martin tunnel geologically and petrographically and to look for historical finds. He had the pine chips found and an old board examined at the Institute for Radium Research and Nuclear Physics in Vienna. A time of origin between 1440 and 1630 for the pine chips and between 1640 and 1680 for the board was established. Construction of the suspension bridge began in autumn of that year.

Boom

In 1990, the opening of the tunnel began. Old rooms had to be torn out and replaced with new ones. In the "manual drive process" one felt one's way slowly. Because of the increasing mountain pressure, a door frame had to be set every 80 cm . The work had to be stopped because of the increasingly difficult situation in the Hieronymus Erbstollen, in which large, serious breaches hindered progress.

Now they started with the carpentry in the St. Martin tunnel. In 1991 work on the Hieronymus Erbstollen was resumed. The situation remained difficult and several cubic meters had to be lifted in a wheelbarrow every day. A large rock had to be laboriously broken up by drilling and setting wedges and then removed piece by piece, as blasting it seemed too dangerous. Penetrating water made work difficult, a large accumulation of water was carefully drained off in order to avoid a tidal wave that would destroy everything. Prolonged rainfall again hindered work. On June 18, the workers had penetrated 62 meters deep, in September the 90 m tunnel had been excavated. The situation remained difficult, however, and on some days progress was only 50 cm. In November work had to be stopped due to the weather. At this point you were standing 96 m deep in the mountain.

Breakthrough and opening

In March 1992, the work was continued and immediately had to do with an even stronger mountain pressure. At the same time, people continued to work on the Knappensteig. This work on the steep terrain was tedious and difficult. At the beginning of June the workers had advanced 130 meters into the tunnels, but the overgrown rock was still not visible. In 1992 the club's management received the official approval of the district administration for the construction of the visitor path to the epidote discovery site Knappenwand.

On June 25th, the natural rock finally reached the roof and the carved curve of a solid tunnel emerged. The breakthrough in the tunnel was achieved after a year and four and a half months. The remaining cleaning of the tunnel was comparatively easy. The last of the rubble and old rotten posts and sleepers were removed. The necessary carpentry was set up and a power cable pulled in. The breakthrough ceremony took place on July 2, 1992. In mid-July all the remaining work was done. On July 23, 1992 the Hieronymus Morgenstoll wing could be used again for the first time. In the following years, the planned work up to the completion of the show mine was carried out.

The conversion into a show mine lasted from 1986 to 1996. 1,200 meters of the four kilometer long tunnel and shaft system were made accessible to visitors. In 2013 the show mine of the Hohe Tauern National Park was closed. The reasons given were a sharp drop in visitor numbers, a dramatic rise in maintenance costs and the incompatibility with the overall concept of the national park. Instead, in August 2013, the national park opened a geo-teaching path next door, at the end of which the 133-meter-long Martin tunnel is accessible. But it only offers an insight into the geology, not the historical mining.

However, the show mine is currently accessible again in the summer months as part of guided tours.

See also

Web links