Exhibition Mine Markus Röhling Stolln Frohnau e. V. — Attraction in Annaberg-Buchholz

It was my first visit to a mine in the Erzgebirge region, so I cannot compare to other tours; I chose this one because ofthe good reviews and because it‘s only one hour instead of 2.5 (like other places in the region).

Due to COVID-19, you need to call a few hours (better one day) in advance to reserve your spot - and you can ask for tours in English or Czech then as well, because the standard tour is in German. We had a tour in German and the guide spoke just little enough of the Saxonian dialect that you could still understand him well; however, you had to pay attention because he talked very fast and often switched topics quickly (often it sounded like he read from a script). The content of the tour was very interesting and amusing, the guide made quite a lot of jokes. Beware of the temperature: it was around 8-10 degrees in the mine -and quite windy on the train going in-, so I was glad to have at least double layers (because the coat everyone gets given before going in is just against water dropping from the ceiling, not for warmth).

All in all a nice first visit to a mine, but I was missing some simple explanations of the minig terms the guide used...

We joined the guided tour (booking essential) and it was awesome. 600m inside the hill was a well-curated exhibition, in the form of stations connected by mine tunnels. There were non-moving artifacts, but also live demonstration of various machines and the huge water wheel. Our guide Michael was not only knowledgeable, but also entertaining and simply passionate about mining. He took special care to make sure that two visitors in our group (a school-age child and a disabled person) were engaged and safe in the tunnels. Thank you for the great tour, Michael! Highly...

Der Besuch im Stollen Markus Röhling war mal was ganz anderes. Ich war schon in einigen Bergwerken, und jedes hat seine Besonderheiten. Man fährt ganz rustikal mit einer kleinen Bahn ein, und wird durch die Geschichte von den Anfängen des Bergbaus dort bis zur Gegenwart geführt. Hier wird besonders auf das Wirken und Leben der Bergleute unter Tage hingewiesen, man erfährt, was beispielweise ein Quartalswinkel und was ein deutscher Türstock ist (falls man mal bei wer wird Millionär eingeladen wird, gut zu wissen). Weiterhin werden interessante Details auch über die Wismut und dazu natürlich über den Uranbergbau vermittelt. Das Wasserrad ist auch sehr beeindruckend und so, vorallem in Funktion, nicht gleich wieder woanders zu sehen. Der Stollen diente auch schon mehrfach als Filmkulisse. Es gibt einen kleinen Shop, und der Parkplatz ist ausreichend groß. Ein paar Minuten fußläufig bergauf ist die Gaststätte Bergschmiede mit einem klassischen Pferdegöpel zu erreichen. Das rundet den Tag ab. Bitte vorher über die Öffnungszeiten...