The Industrial Museum in the Historical Michal Mine

If you are thinking of visiting Ostrava and are interested in the industrial history of this city, you definitely should not miss out on a tour of the Michal Mine. It seems like the miners have never left the raw spaces, as if they were still underground, mining coal.

Here, you can see the chain locker room, where coalminers hung their street clothing, raising their apparel up to the ceiling using a chain system. The museum also includes the canteen and the ‘lamp room’, illuminated by torchlight.

The Michal Mine was excavated as early as the mid-nineteenth century and used the latest technological advances of the time. The machines had to transport the excavated coal to the top, lower miners into the depths of the mine, supply workplaces with fresh air and pump groundwater. As industrial development progressed, the former steam-powered machines were replaced by electrical ones.

Mining operations at the Michal Mine ended in the 1990s, after which the mining company donated the complex to the Ministry of Culture of the Czech Republic. It was converted into an industrial museum that displays mining equipment. In addition to visitor tours, the old mine’s raw spaces have also become a venue for expositions and small-scale cultural events. Enthusiasts of Ostrava’s mining history can also visit the mining museum in Landek Park or the Hlubina Mine.