A shaft site of the Himmelfahrt Fundgrube, the former Freiberger silver mine now operating as a UNESCO-listed teaching and visitor mine under the TU Bergakademie Freiberg.
The Himmelfahrt Fundgrube - Constantin Schacht site at Freiberg in Saxony forms part of one of the most significant silver mining complexes in European history. Silver extraction in the Freiberg district dates from 1168, and the field of the later Himmelfahrt Fundgrube incorporated more than 330 named workings consolidated over several centuries. By the mid-nineteenth century the Himmelfahrt Fundgrube was the largest mine in the Saxon silver industry, employing nearly 2,900 men around 1860 and producing some 448 tonnes of silver between 1840 and 1896.
The mine was nationalised in 1886 and closed with all Freiberger state mines in 1913. Operations resumed briefly under autarky policy from 1937 and continued under GDR conditions until 1968–1969. Since 1919 the workings have been maintained by the TU Bergakademie Freiberg as a teaching and research mine; visitor access has been open since 1991.
The complex was inscribed as part of the UNESCO World Heritage Montanregion Erzgebirge/Krušnohoří in 2019.
The Freiberger silver district has roots stretching to 1168, when ore was found near the crossing of the Münzbach. The workings that would eventually consolidate into the Himmelfahrt Fundgrube began in the Middle Ages as numerous independent small mines. By 1384 the two shafts identified as Vordere Reiche Zeche and Hintere Reiche Zeche are documented by name, placing them among the oldest attested mining installations in Freiberg. The shaft known as Alte Elisabeth is recorded in the oldest mining concession book of the Freiberger Bergamt from 1511. Between 1525 and 1673 the Grube Sanct Elisabeth delivered 3.7 tonnes of silver, and between 1542 and 1600 the Abraham mine produced a tonne of silver. The Himmelfahrt Fundgrube itself is mentioned from 1716 in some sources.
The field expanded substantially in the eighteenth century. In 1752 the Abraham Fundgrube was added, and in 1796 the Alte Elisabeth Fundgrube was incorporated. The decisive transformation came from 1828, when rich silver strikes were made at the junctions of several ore veins and on the newly discovered Neue Hoffnung Flacher vein. Within a short period the Himmelfahrt Fundgrube became the most productive mine in the Freiberg district and one of the largest silver mines in Europe. The workforce grew from 165 in 1831 to 2,882 by 1856–1860. Between 1840 and 1896 the mine's silver output totalled 448 tonnes, alongside large quantities of lead, copper, and other metals. By the end of the nineteenth century between 1,500 and 2,000 men were regularly employed.
During this period of expansion, several main shafts were developed or modernised. The Abrahamschacht, whose surface building complex survives largely in its condition of around 1850, served as the principal winding shaft. The Davidschacht was sunk from 1835. The Alte Elisabeth shaft at its current location was developed from 1808 to 1811 as an inclined shaft following the ore vein at a 45-degree angle; it was equipped with a horse whim and a water-powered pump wheel in 1811 and was closed for economic reasons in 1843. In 1847–1848 the Alte Elisabeth was reopened to reach deeper ore and to provide a second working point for the construction of the Rothschönberger Stolln. In 1848 the Maschinenfabrik Constantin Pfaff of Chemnitz built a twelve-horsepower balance beam steam engine for the site, which entered service in 1849 as the second steam engine in the Freiberg district. This machine, installed in a stepped surface complex of boiler house, engine house, and headgear building that became a standard type for Saxon steam winding installations, survives in full working order and is operated today on compressed air for demonstration purposes. The 18-metre-square chimney to the north of the building group is one of the oldest industrial chimneys in Saxony. A sizing and ore-sorting bank was added to the winding house in 1851 and extended to 30 sorting places on the west gable in 1856, with the earlier bank converted into a miners' prayer room by 1864. The Reiche Zeche directional shaft was begun in 1841 and reached a depth of 724 metres; its current steel headframe dates from 1953. The Ludwigschacht was sunk in 1853 near the Freiberger Mulde and served as a water management, haulage, and winding shaft; it received the last water wheel hoist to be built in Saxon mining in 1863 and was closed in 1916, with the shaft tube partially backfilled and finally cemented in 1969–1970.
With the introduction of the gold standard in 1873 the Freiberger silver industry entered a prolonged decline. Between 1880 and 1898 the world silver price fell by half, and the prices of the by-products lead and zinc also fell sharply. To prevent the collapse of the principal mines, the Kingdom of Saxony nationalised the five most important Freiberger workings in 1886, including the Himmelfahrt Fundgrube. Despite subsequent modernisation, profitability could not be restored, and all state mines in the Freiberg district were closed in 1913. The Alte Elisabeth shaft had by then reached a depth of 460 metres.
The Bergakademie Freiberg took over the surface and underground installations of the Alte Elisabeth in 1919 and has operated them since for practical teaching and research. Mining in the Freiberg district resumed from 1937 under the Sachsenerz Bergwerks GmbH as part of National Socialist autarky policy, and continued under GDR conditions because the state needed non-ferrous metals and the hard currency they earned on world markets. The Reiche Zeche shaft served as the main winding shaft in this final active period and the Alte Elisabeth shaft as the ventilation shaft. Production ceased in 1968–1969. The teaching and research mine has been open to visitors since 1991 and is operated by the Förderverein Himmelfahrt Fundgrube Freiberg e.V. under the umbrella of the TU Bergakademie Freiberg. Some 14 kilometres of workings on four levels to a depth of 230 metres are accessible. The surface complex of the Alte Elisabeth, the only surviving Saxon ore mine building with its original mid-nineteenth-century interior intact, forms part of the UNESCO World Heritage Montanregion Erzgebirge/Krušnohoří inscribed in 2019.