Former Lorraine hard coal complex at Petite-Rosselle, now the Parc Explor Wendel, France's largest preserved coal mining site and an open museum with three headframes and two wash houses.
The carreau Wendel at Petite-Rosselle in Moselle stands as the largest preserved coal mining complex in France. The Saar-Lorraine coal seam was first tapped on the French side at Petite-Rosselle in June 1856 at the puits Saint-Charles, under a concession held by Charles de Wendel and Georges Tom Hainguerlot. The Urselsbrunn research shaft, sunk between 1862 and 1864, led directly to the sinking of puits Wendel n°1 and n°2 from 1865 and of puits Vuillemin n°1 from 1867.
These two adjacent sites — the carreaux Wendel and Vuillemin — exploited separate seams divided by a geological fault, and before nationalisation both belonged to the Compagnie des Houillères de Petite-Rosselle. Following nationalisation in 1946, the complex passed to the Houillères du Bassin de Lorraine and a major modernisation programme followed. At its peak in 1960 the site extracted up to 10,000 tonnes daily with 5,000 miners.
Extraction ended progressively from 1986 to 1989 and the last shaft closed in 2001. The site was transferred to the Établissement Public Foncier de Lorraine and from 2006 opened as the Musée La Mine Wendel and Musée Les Mineurs Wendel, collectively known as the Parc Explor Wendel.
The Saar-Lorraine coal seam, initially discovered in the Saar, was exploited on the French side for the first time when the puits Saint-Charles at Petite-Rosselle produced its first coal in June 1856. The exploitation was conducted under the Compagnie Anonyme des Mines de Stiring, controlled by Charles de Wendel and Georges Tom Hainguerlot; the engineer Émile Vuillemin served as a consultant. In 1853 the company had become the Compagnie des Houillères de Stiring before eventually passing entirely into the hands of the de Wendel family and being reorganised in 1889 as the Compagnie des Houillères de Petite-Rosselle.
A borehole sunk in 1856 close to the site of the future puits Wendel n°2 prompted the decision to sink a research shaft. The puits de l'Urselsbrunn was sunk from 1862 and reached 138 metres depth in 1864, proving coal at 55 metres. At the end of 1865 the board of directors voted to sink a full extraction shaft in the Urselsbrunn valley, to be named after the founder of the company.
Sinking of puits Wendel n°1 began in January 1866 and it was put into service on 1 January 1869. In 1868 the Urselsbrunn research shaft was enlarged and deepened at the same time that sinking of puits Wendel n°2 began; the latter reached 218 metres in October 1871 and thereafter served ventilation. Sinking of puits Vuillemin n°1 commenced in 1867 and the shaft entered exploitation in 1876.
On 26 November 1876 a violent underground fire broke out in the veine Henri at the Wendel seat, requiring the sealing of the affected workings; the fire was not extinguished until three years later. Sinking of puits Vuillemin n°2 took place between 1881 and 1889. In 1889 the Compagnie des Houillères de Stiring was dissolved and its assets passed to the Société des Petits-fils de François de Wendel et Cie, which founded the Compagnie des Houillères de Petite-Rosselle to manage the collieries.
By 1910 the combined production of the Petite-Rosselle seats had reached 2,210,000 tonnes per year. During the First World War the site remained active. After the return of Alsace-Lorraine to France the mines were placed under provisional sequester before being restored to their French owners.
In 1925 deep borings by the sièges Saint-Charles, Saint-Joseph, and Vuillemin revealed a deposit of fat coal (charbon gras) at considerable depth. In 1928 the Saar mines accepted an amodiation (lease) of the Warndt deposit, enabling the Vuillemin shaft to extend its working. The decision to sink a third Wendel shaft was taken in 1935 following the discovery of this deep fat-coal seam.
Sinking of puits Wendel n°3 began in 1939 but was interrupted by the German occupation. During the Second World War the Moselle was annexed and the collieries came under German management. The region was liberated in February 1945 during Operation Nordwind.
Following the nationalisation of the French coal industry in 1946, the carreau Wendel was integrated into the Houillères du Bassin de Lorraine. Sinking of puits Wendel n°3 resumed in 1947 and was completed in 1952 at a depth of 902 metres. Puits Vuillemin n°1 and puits Wendel n°1 were deepened and modernised between 1950 and 1955, receiving new metallic headframes and new bicylindroconical drum winding engines built by Venot, driven by ALSTHOM motors of 3,160 horsepower.
Puits Wendel n°2 was similarly modernised but with a Koepe pulley and a 10.5-tonne skip for coal raising. Puits Wendel n°3 entered service in 1953 equipped with a headframe carrying four sheave wheels, two 13-tonne skips, and two four-deck cages, driven by two ALSTHOM Koepe-pulley winding engines of 3,800 horsepower. In 1955 a modern lavoir with schlamm flotation was installed.
In 1956 the sièges Wendel and Vuillemin were merged to form the siège Wendel-Vuillemin. In 1957 the merged siège declared production of 1,449,581 tonnes. In 1958 lavoir n°3 was completed and brought into service.
By 1960 the site could extract up to 10,000 tonnes of coal per day with an effective strength of 5,000 miners; workers were housed in hierarchically arranged cités minières including Urselsbach, Wendel Nord, Wendel Sud, Saint-Charles Bas, and Saint-Charles Haut. The lavoir n°1-2 was modernised in 1961–62, adding a new volume above the original structure. Extraction ceased at the Vuillemin shafts in 1962; puits Vuillemin n°1 and n°2 then served as ventilation shafts.
The cylindrical decanter was added to the lavoir in 1966. The carreau Wendel ceased its main extraction activities in 1986, though part of the site's infrastructure continued to serve other shafts in the Wendel concession still in operation until 1989. The headframe of puits Wendel n°1 was dismantled in November 1990.
Puits Wendel n°1 closed definitively in 1989, puits Wendel n°2 in 1992, and puits Wendel n°3 in 2001. The headframe of puits Vuillemin n°2 — the oldest surviving metallic headframe in the Lorraine basin, built in 1884 — was retained; it was listed as a monument historique in 1998 (sources vary between 1991 and 1998). In 1985 the Centre de Culture Scientifique, Technique et Industrielle du Bassin Houiller Lorrain (CCSTI) was established, bringing together private individuals, heritage conservation associations, and DRAC representatives.
In 1988 the houillères transferred the carreau Vuillemin-Wendel to the CCSTI. The decision to create the museum on this site was taken in 1991. The Établissement Public Foncier de Lorraine acquired the site in 1991.
From 1993 gradual renovation of the installations permitted progressive public access. The Syndicat Mixte du Musée de la Mine was formed to carry the partial rehabilitation of the Lavoir 1-2, entrusted to architect Philippe Jean and inaugurated in 2000. In 2006 the Musée La Mine Wendel opened, offering visitors an immersive recreation of underground galleries with mining equipment in situ.
In 2012 the Musée Les Mineurs Wendel opened in the former miners' administrative building, presenting 1,800 square metres of displays on the history of Lorraine coal mining and the daily life of miners, with 160 objects, 25 audiovisual documents, and audio testimony points. The two museums operate together as the Parc Explor Wendel, which also incorporates cycling tracks and walking routes. The complex forms one of the largest and most complete sets of coal mining buildings in Europe and is an anchor point on the European Route of Industrial Heritage.
