Historic Silver Mine in Tarnowskie Góry

The Historic Silver Mine in Tarnowskie Góry is a preserved mining complex in Silesian Voivodeship, Poland, notable for its early modern silver and lead mining operations and innovative underground water-management works. The site was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List in 2017 for its technological and historical significance.

Visitors can explore surface exhibitions about mining techniques and local history and enter the preserved subterranean workings via the Black Trout Adit, which includes areas where visitors travel underground by boat and on foot through historic drainage tunnels. The overall ensemble illustrates mining and water-management solutions developed from the 16th century onward.

Mining in the Tarnowskie Góry area began in the early modern period and continued in various forms over several centuries, shaping the town’s economy and infrastructure. Conservation and presentation efforts in the 20th and 21st centuries have focused on stabilizing the underground structures and creating a visitor route that interprets the site’s history.

The complex lies in the town of Tarnowskie Góry in southern Poland and is accessible from regional urban centres in Silesia.

• UNESCO Listing: Inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2017 for its historic silver mining complex and associated water-management system dating back to the early modern period.

What to See #

• Black Trout Adit: The Black Trout Adit (Sztolnia Czarnego Pstrąga) is an underground visitor route where parts of the historic mine's drainage system are accessible by foot and by boat on an artificial underground waterway.
• Surface Exhibitions: Exhibition spaces at surface-level sites present mining tools, historical records and information about the town's mining-driven development from the 16th century onwards.