Once you're in the heart of the Alps — green or snowy (depending on your luck) Tyrol — don't miss a trip to the silver mines of Schwaz. Schwaz is a small town at the foot of the Karwendel mountain range. This tiny settlement was once one of the main sources of finance for the powerful Habsburgs. Schwaz is only a few dozen kilometres from Innsbruck, so a trip to the mines where silver was once mined won't tire you or your children.
Legend has it that silver was discovered in Schwaz by accident. But for the attention of a curious servant girl, generations of the ruling Austrian dynasty would not have had their silver mine. The young girl was tending her flock at the foot of a mountain when she happened to notice a shiny stone that had fallen from a cliff. It had been picked up by a bull that had decided to scratch its hardened horns against the rock. It was the real silver ore that instantly made Schwaz the "Austrian Klondike".
A standard tour of the mine lasts an hour and a half. You will learn about the difficult living and working conditions of the miners who mined silver for their king 500 years ago. Since the early 1990s, the old silver mines have been one of the most popular museums in the country. Not only are the tunnels very well preserved, but also the various devices used by the miners to extract copper and silver ore in the 15th and 16th centuries.
It's worth noting the tenacity of the miners - over centuries of work they've dug a tunnel just under a kilometre deep! Tourists are taken by trolley to the heart of the tunnel. The journey to the 900-metre depths takes a few minutes, but almost all visitors to the unique underground museum go through it with bated breath. Grey walls rush by, water drips from above — it's unsettling...
Almost every few metres in the mine there are realistic figures of old miners. They show a modern person how hard the work of a miner was in the Middle Ages. The hardest work was standing in freezing water. A model of a water pump shows how difficult it was to cope with the elements.
You can admire the well-lit, modern lighting of the mine, which gives you a good view of all the local sights. Medieval miners had a much harder job - working with torches and later by the light of newly manufactured and still very dim lamps. A slide show on the history of the mine and the town of Schwaz itself is displayed on one of the stone walls of the mine adit.
On your way out of the Silver Mine, we suggest you stop by the souvenir shop. You can buy small but very nice silver gifts for yourself and your loved ones. On 175 square metres you will find a wide range of silverware in different shapes, sizes and prices.
