KWK Mysłowice-Wesoła — szyb Piotr Katowice · Województwo śląskie · Poland

The origins of the Wesoła colliery lie in the decision by the ruling Hochberg family — specifically Johann Heinrich XV, Prince of Pless — to develop a new deep mine on the eastern edge of the municipality of Murcki, near the boundary with Ławki and Wesoła. Construction began in 1911, and the mine — named Fürstengrube after the princely family — was commissioned and brought into production in 1914. Coal extraction in the wider area had occurred much earlier: small-scale working from a drift called Wesoła dated to 1785, when approximately ten tonnes per day were raised for a nearby glassworks. However, the modern deep mine infrastructure commenced with the Fürstengrube.

Following the division of Upper Silesia after the First World War and the 1922 transfer of the Mysłowice area to Poland, the mine's German name was polonised to Książę. From 1 August 1925 to 1 January 1929 Fürstengrube/Książę was temporarily merged with the neighbouring Emanuel colliery, later KWK Murcki. On 1 January 1937 the mine was renamed Harcerska. During the German occupation from 1939 onwards the mine reverted to the name Fürstengrube; from 1 January 1941 it was operated by Fürstengrube G.m.b.H. based in Katowice. A particularly dark chapter followed: during the occupation the mine's workforce included prisoners from a concentration camp at Ławki, for whose memory a monument now stands on the colliery site. The mine was liberated in 1945, reverted to the name Książę, and then to Harcerska from 1 January 1946.

From 1 January 1947 the Harcerska colliery was merged with a newly constructed adjacent mine called Wesoła, taking the combined name Wesoła. Construction of a further section, Wesoła II, began in 1949; this was constituted as a separate enterprise in 1949–1953 and formally opened on 21 July 1952. The original Harcerska section was designated Wesoła I. From 1 January 1954 the two sections were reunified as KWK Wesoła. By 1947 a football club, Górnik Wesoła, had been founded at the mine.

In January 1967 the mine was renamed KWK Lenin in honour of Vladimir Lenin, a name it carried until 1990. In 1971, during a visit by Edward Gierek, the Lenin mine was awarded the Order of the Banner of Labour, First Class. By 2006 KWK Wesoła was the largest mine in the Katowicki Holding Węglowy S.A. and had the highest mechanical coal-processing capacity and the greatest workforce in that group, with operative reserves of approximately 220 million tonnes. The mine's active shafts on what became Ruch Wesoła — Bronisław, Piotr, Karol, Wacław, and Wentylacyjny II — serve the orebody on working levels of 230, 465, 665, and 865 metres. Szyb Piotr functions as one of three intake-ventilation shafts and is among the key shafts for vertical personnel and material transport, serving levels 865, 665, and 465 metres.

On 1 January 2007 KWK Wesoła was merged with the long-established KWK Mysłowice — whose origins dated to 1837 — to form KWK Mysłowice-Wesoła, with Wesoła operating as Ruch Wesoła. On 1 June 2015 the Mysłowice section was transferred to the Spółka Restrukturyzacji Kopalń S.A. for decommissioning, leaving Ruch Wesoła as the active mining operation. On 1 April 2017 KWK Mysłowice-Wesoła passed from Katowicki Holding Węglowy S.A. to Polska Grupa Górnicza S.A. In October 2014 a methane explosion at the mine killed five miners and injured twenty-six. In November 2017 a seismic event at depth 665 metres injured nine miners. Ruch Wesoła continues active coal production, with Szyb Piotr remaining part of its operational shaft infrastructure and its headframe visible at the surface.