Krásno Mining Museum (Vilém Tin Mine Complex)

The Kr ásno Mining Museum is a branch of the Sokolov Regional Museum. It is located on the site of the old Vilém tin mine on the Gellnauer lode, which was in operation with intervals until the 1990s.

The ore dressing works, a workshop building, a headframe, a mineshaft building, a machine room, a gatehouse and the structure of one of the oldest transformer stations in the country are still preserved at the Vilém tin mine complex. The main museum building, reconstructed from 1994 to 1998, served in the 18 th and 19 th centuries as tin ore dressing works.

The exhibition opening ceremony took place on 5 th September 1998 to mark the second congress of mining towns and municipalities in the Czech Republic, which took place in Krásno. The former ore dressing works now serve as the centre of this open-air mining museum, which is laid out over an area of several hectares. In addition to the museum itself, there are also mining and ore processing relics scattered about the surrounding area, which are gradually to be made accessible by a system of educational trails and walkways. Reconstruction of the other buildings in the Vilém mine complex took place from 1998 to 2004 and they will be made accessible to the public from 2004.

The chief attraction is the 1897 mining steam engine from the Marie mine and the exhibition on its transfer from Královské Poříčí. A presentation is also made of the history of ore and coal mining, the mineralogy and geology of the Slavkov Forest, the medieval Jeroným mine at Čistá and an outline history of ore dressing. Another point of interest is the exhibition of Bohemian Massif ore deposits mined after 1945. You can also inspect a number of very lifelike models of mine machinery in the building.

The public also has access to the Vil ém mine headframe and the mineshaft building, while the Vilém mine machine room has a 1942 Siemens electric mining machine. The mineshaft building has an exhibition of vertical and horizontal mine transport and equipment for cutting long mineworks. We have prepared an exhibition on mine rescue work for visitors to the old transformer station building and information on the operation of one of the oldest mine transformer stations in this country.

You can also look around an exhibit mine gallery with a length of approximately 40 metres, where we present period cutting equipment and underground tackle. The complex also has an extensive exhibition of 900 mm gauge mine track transport used in surface works in the Sokolov basin and 600 mm gauge transport used in the underground Slavkov mining district. The old Vil ém mine workshop building has a lecture hall and areas for short-term exhibitions.

The exhibition is expanded on an ongoing basis, particularly with additional mining equipment and machinery.