In the immediate vicinity of the large pedestrian zone is the entrance to the former alum mine Plauen. Here you can take part in individual guided tours and learn about the mining history of the city.
Many visitors associate Plauen only with the production of Plauen lace. However, alum slate was also mined here for almost 300 years.
What is alum and what is it used for?
Alum is a crystallized hydrous sulfuric acid double salt of potassium sulfate and aluminum sulfate. Alum schist is a clay schist interbedded with pyrite and coal. During weathering, the rock releases alum.
The Egyptians already used alum as a flame retardant for wood. The Romans mixed it with vinegar and used it as an antiperspirant.
In the 14th and 15th centuries, the Medici family in Florence held the sole right to royalty on the mineral. Together with the church, they operated the first alum mine in Europe (Tolfa). At that time, the mineral was mainly used for dyeing cloth.
In the tannery, alum was also used to whiten the skins. The salt was also used for pickling in the printing industry.
Today, alum is known, for example, from the use of styptic pencils, which are used to stop bleeding. Some gardeners use alum to intensify the coloration of blue and purple hydrangeas.
“Ewige Leben”, the alum mine Plauen
It was around 1542 when two miners from Marienberg started to mine alum slate in Plauen. They gradually opened up a mine that was still in operation until 1826. The mine is the oldest alum slate mine in Saxony.
It is not yet possible to determine exactly how large the entire developed area is. Not all passages have yet been uncovered and are accessible.
The slate from the mine was processed quite elaborately into alum, which was used in tanneries and dye works.
During the Second World War, the people of Plauen used the underground passages as air raid shelters. The room served as a shelter for about 450 people at that time. It must have been unimaginably cramped, but helped save countless lives.
After the war, the former mine remained unused for a long time and was almost forgotten.
Visit to the mine
Since 1997, the Vogtländische Bergknappenverein zu Plauen e.V. has made it possible to visit the former mine. With a lot of commitment and volunteer work, they have already made part of the mine accessible again. Guided tours (on request) are offered. Children’s birthday parties can also be celebrated in the mine. In addition to an exciting program underground, there is the possibility to celebrate with the children in a cozy gallery area in the miners’ room.
Today, the visitor mine is one of the few mines in Germany that can be visited almost entirely with a wheelchair. There is even a large wheelchair-accessible restroom that has a great ceiling design. A glance upward transports the visitor into the depths of a mine.
You enter the mine through a well-secured entrance and first stand in an anteroom. In a large trolley, which actually has nothing to do with mining on site, but visually fits well, lies the protective clothing. So wear a helmet and always keep an eye on your head.
A small staircase takes us into the mine tunnel and it leads in two directions. In one direction is the second, handicapped entrance and the other direction takes us into the mine.
If you walk today through the corridors, which are barely 185 cm high and 65 cm wide, with their rough walls, it seems like a path to another time. It is almost unimaginable, when you see the corridors today, that almost 30,000 tons of dirt were stored here, which were gradually brought out with wheelbarrows.
It goes through an exposed water solution gallery. Today, the water flows out of the gallery in a controlled manner in a channel that has been created. Initially, the good 30 liters per minute flowed in the entire passage and made the path extremely slippery. In between, our attention is repeatedly drawn to certain rock formations and deposits. It is a small geological journey, on which many things I once learned theoretically suddenly become much clearer to me practically.
On one wall we discover a hewn inscription that was discovered by chance in 2000. Particularly impressive I find the supports that have been retracted in part of the corridors. This is how I have always imagined a gallery in a mine. If now no electric light (although I was honestly glad about it), but candlelight would have illuminated the corridors, the atmosphere would have been perfect. Okay, the miners at that time were certainly not looking for “mood” in the corridor, but worked hard for their money and would certainly often have liked to have more light than the glow of a candle.
I was after a good hour in the alum mine Plauen, due to the rather low temperature and the damp cold air then but glad to get back into the sun. The visit and the decidedly entertaining and interesting, very personal tour has impressed us very much.
Address:
Alaunbergwerk “Ewiges Leben”,
Haupteingang Reichsstraße,
08523 Plauen
Opening hours:
Guided tour by individual appointment from Monday to Saturday between 8 am and 8 pm.
Prices:
Adults 5,00 €
Children/ teenagers 6-16 years 3,00 € (children under 6 years are not admitted)
Wheelchair users + accompanying person have free admission!
Mining adventure and / or children’s birthday party with “squire examination” -.
Duration 2 hours Price: 55,00 € for max. 8 children and 2 adults.
A look inside the mine:
The visit to the alum mine in Plauen with the great guided tour was a program item of our research trip to Plauen. This article was written independently of the visit.
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