Museum of Mining

The Underground mining museum "Starite Rudnitsi 1891" ("The old mines 1891") is one of the main attractions of town of Pernik. It is located 50 meters below the ground in one of the old mines - "Temelko Nenkov" (or "Starite Rudnitsi"), where in 1891 has been made the first mining sod in Bulgaria. The mine was operating until 1966, and since 1986 was turned into a museum.

The galleries of the old mine are 630 meters long and about 30 expositions are placed in them, which follow the development of mining in Bulgaria. In the beginning, the visitors pass through a tunnel reinforced by wooden supports – as it was in the past. Various types of equipment for reinforcement and lightning can be seen along the entire length of the galleries.

An exposition of transportation equipment is also presented – various types of locomotives and passenger trolleys, most of which are authentic and show the progress of the mining industry after 1896.

The visitors can touch authentic mining instruments. Accessories and equipment, mine phones and means of communication, protective equipment, self preservers, etc. are presented in the museum expositions.

A part of the inventory is the first locomotive, commissioned in Pernik Mines – Siemens of 1925.

The Mining Directorate – the building in which the managing body of the mine is situated, is a remarkable architectural monument which stores pieces of art and is a symbol of the town. Museum exposition tracing the development of mining in its various periods, as well as the geological history and diversity of the Pernik region is presented in its ground floor part.

The lecture and the tour in the Museum of Mining continue for about 40 minutes. The temperature in the gallery is almost the same during the entire year, that is why the tourists which visit the museum in the summer must carry warm clothes because the temperature is a little above zero.