Steel lattice headframe of the former Důl Hlubina, a national cultural monument forming part of the Dolní oblast Vítkovice industrial complex open to visitors in Ostrava-Vítkovice.
Důl Hlubina was a deep black-coal mine founded in 1852 by Salomon Mayer Rothschild immediately adjacent to the Vítkovické železárny ironworks in what was then the village of Vítkovice, on the southern outskirts of Moravská Ostrava. The mine was established to supply coking coal directly to the adjacent ironworks, creating a technological chain — mine, coke plant, blast furnaces — that formed the basis of the site now known as the Dolní oblast Vítkovice and nicknamed the "Ostravské Hradčany" (Ostrava Hradčany). The mine was the first in the Ostrava coalfield to use a masonry-lined shaft.
Coal winding was ultimately ended on 30 June 1992, having reached a maximum depth of 1,022.6 metres. In October 1993 the headframe and central surface structures were classified as cultural monuments, and in June 2002 the entire Dolní oblast Vítkovice complex — comprising Důl Hlubina, the coke plant, and the blast furnaces of Vítkovické železárny — was declared a national cultural monument. The headframe of jáma Hlubina 2, a latticed steel tower 49.8 metres high dating from 1924, is the structure recorded under this entry.
The Dolní oblast Vítkovice has been included on the European Heritage Label list since December 2008. Guided tours of the colliery complex are operated by the Dolní oblast Vítkovice organisation.
The geological basis for Důl Hlubina was established by knowledge accumulated from working the coal seams of nearby shafts — Antonín, Šalomoun, and Karolína — which demonstrated that the seam sequence from Moravská Ostrava continued southwards toward the Vítkovice area. Two exploratory boreholes sunk in the immediate vicinity of the ironworks in 1851 confirmed the presence of workable coal. In 1852, in the Františkovo údolí (Francis Valley) on the southern edge of Moravská Ostrava, two shafts were sunk side by side at a distance of 24 metres: an intake shaft and a return-air shaft. This was the first occasion in the history of the Ostrava coalfield that a masonry-lined shaft was used. The mine was named Hlubina, meaning "depth" or "deep mine" (German: Tiefbauschacht).
The original driving force behind the foundation was the requirement of the adjacent ironworks for a reliable supply of coking coal. In 1854 the two shafts shared a common shaft building and machine room. The original steam engine installed in 1851 for shaft sinking was replaced in 1873 by a new two-cylinder vertical steam winding engine with Kraft valve gear rated at 250 HP, fitted with a drum and single-deck cage for two tubs. In 1871 the mine was leased for 25 years to the Vítkovické kamenouhelné doly (Vítkovice coal mining company). By 1884 the headframe over the shaft was still of timber construction, 13.0 metres high, with rope sheaves of 2.8 metres diameter. In 1891 the winding engine was replaced by a two-cylinder horizontal steam engine of 500 HP, manufactured at Vítkovické železárny. Both engines were products of the Vítkovice works.
In 1892 a braced steel headframe 18 metres high was erected over the main shaft, replacing the timber structure. In 1895 the mine was formally incorporated into the Vítkovické horní a hutní těžířstvo (VHHT). In 1931 Důl Šalomoun (including the remnants of jáma Karolína) was absorbed into the Důl Hlubina mine field. Following the German occupation in 1939, the VHHT was subordinated to the management of the Reichswerke AG für Erzbergbau und Eisenhütten "Hermann Göring", and formally became part of the state concern Hermann Göring Werke in December 1942.
The headframe that is the subject of this entry was constructed as part of a major development of the mine that began in the early 1920s. Between 17 May 1921 and 30 September 1924 a new winding shaft, jáma Hlubina 2, was sunk to a depth of 463.12 metres with a circular cross-section of 610 centimetres diameter. Over the new shaft a latticed steel headframe 49.8 metres high was erected; this is the surviving structure. Coal winding from the new shaft commenced on 4 September 1924. The shaft building, machine room, and winding-cage circulation infrastructure erected at this time constituted, in the words of contemporary engineering literature, a technically progressive and widely published installation. The new winding machine was a two-cylinder steam engine of 3,000 HP with Gutehoffnungshütte valve gear, manufactured by Vítkovické železárny, with piston diameter 1,200 mm, stroke 1,800 mm, and drum diameter 6,500 mm. Coal extraction began from the new shaft on 4 September 1924.
In 1895 the bathhouse at the mine was designed by Ostrava architect Felix Neumann (1860–1942) in a single-storey brick building that survives as one of the oldest structures in the complex. In 1925 the bathhouse was extended in a manner fully respecting Neumann's original composition, to designs by architect Otokar Bém (1868–1949). In 1928 the parameers of the 1891 steam engine (still retained as auxiliary equipment) were recorded as: piston diameter 700 mm, stroke 1,600 mm, drum diameter 5,000 mm. In 1931–1932 jáma Hlubina 2 was deepened to 586.43 metres. In 1940 an electric winding engine manufactured by Škodovy závody replaced the 1924 steam engine as the primary winding unit; the steam engine was kept as a reserve and was eventually scrapped in 1971. In the period 1941–1942 the shaft was further deepened to the tenth level at 780 metres.
The architecturally significant complex of new surface buildings erected in 1957–1961 comprised a new gatehouse, a fire-protection reservoir with fountain on the forecourt, and the so-called "nové koupelny" (new bathhouses) with a half-elliptical entrance atrium in the Brussels-style (bruselský styl) aesthetic fashionable at the time, situated to the east of Místecká ulice. A new boiler house was also constructed in the central section of the site during this period. In 1957–1961 jáma Hlubina 2 was deepened to its final depth of 1,022.6 metres. In 1971 a new electric winding engine of the Koepe 6008 type, rated at 2,500 kW, manufactured by Škoda Plzeň, was installed, replacing the 1940 Škoda engine as the active machine.
The most serious event in the mine's history occurred on 22 May 1960, when a methane explosion in the Flora seam claimed the lives of 54 miners; three others were injured. Rescue operations in the low seam were completed within seventeen hours.
In the organisational restructuring of the Ostrava-Karviná coalfield, Důl Hlubina was from 1 July 1987 incorporated into the combined enterprise Důl Ostrava as závod Hlubina (Hlubina shaft operation), alongside Důl Petr Bezruč. The last wagon of coal was removed on 30 June 1991, and mine operations were definitively ended on 30 June 1992. In the period 1995–1996 jáma Hlubina 2 was backfilled and sealed.
On 22 October 1993 the headframe and central surface structures of Důl Hlubina were classified as cultural monuments. In June 2002, by government decree (nařízení vlády č. 337/2002 Sb.), the combined complex of Důl Hlubina, the coke plant, and the blast furnaces of Vítkovické železárny was declared a national cultural monument of the Czech Republic under the designation Dolní oblast Vítkovice. In December 2008 the Dolní oblast Vítkovice was included on the European Heritage Label list as one of four Czech entries. Following a substantial revitalisation project partly funded by European Union structural funds (approximately 500 million CZK awarded in September 2009), the site has been progressively reopened to the public. The preserved Důl Hlubina structures now form part of a cultural, educational, and events complex managed by the Dolní oblast VÍTKOVICE civic association, founded in 2007. The surviving elements at jáma Hlubina include the 1924 steel latticed headframe (49.8 m), the shaft building with winding platforms, the 1940 Škoda electric winding engine, the 1922 Breitfeld-Daněk electric turbocompressor, the boiler house with Gabre boilers (1914–1917), the 1899 bathhouse by Felix Neumann (with 1925 extension by Otokar Bém), the 1957–1961 new bathhouses in Brussels style, the gatehouse, and the fire-protection reservoir with fountain.