A preserved hard coal drainage shaft of Kopalni Królowa Luiza, now an industrial heritage attraction with a 31.5-metre headframe, working steam winding engine, and viewpoint platform.
Szyb Carnall is the sole surviving shaft of the western field of the former Kopalnia Królowa Luiza hard coal mine in Zabrze, one of the oldest Prussian state coal mines in Upper Silesia, founded in 1791. Sinking of the shaft began in 1853 or 1854 as the ageing Główna Kluczowa Sztolnia Dziedziczna drainage adit proved inadequate for the deepening workings. The shaft takes its name from Rudolf von Carnall, director of the Higher Mining Office in Wrocław from 1856.
At its greatest extent the shaft reached 503 metres. A 2,000-horsepower steam winding engine, manufactured by Eisenhütte Prinz Rudolph in Dülmen in 1915, was installed to serve the shaft. Coal production in the western field declined after the 1950s and the shaft was eventually backfilled in 1990.
From 1993 it became a centrepiece of the Skansen Górniczy Królowa Luiza, part of the Muzeum Górnictwa Węglowego w Zabrzu. The shaft was partially re-excavated in 2009 to permit tourist access to the adit below. A viewing platform was added to the headframe, and the steam engine was restored to working demonstration order.
The Kopalnia Królowa Luiza was founded as a Prussian state hard coal mine in 1791 and grew through the nineteenth century to become one of the largest collieries in Europe, employing around 8,500 miners at its early twentieth-century peak. By the mid-nineteenth century the original drainage infrastructure — the Główna Kluczowa Sztolnia Dziedziczna, a great underground drainage and transport adit whose Zabrze section was put into service in 1812 — was no longer adequate to drain the progressively deeper workings. Sinking of a new drainage shaft began in 1853 or 1854 in the western field of the mine, at what is now ulica Wolności 410 in Zabrze.
The shaft was named after Rudolf von Carnall, a senior mining official who served as director of the Higher Mining Office in Wrocław from 1856 and was one of the presiding authorities over the Zabrze mine. Two companion shafts, Krug and Prinz Schönaich, were sunk nearby in the same decade to form what became the Pole Zachodnie, the western field. Szyb Carnall was originally surmounted by a 22-metre brick tower.
The shaft was deepened and the western field modernised significantly between 1929 and 1931, when the level at 560 metres was opened for production. The original masonry tower was at some stage replaced by a taller steel headframe, and in 1915 the 2,000-horsepower steam winding engine built by Eisenhütte Prinz Rudolph of Dülmen was installed; its twin cylinders each measured 95.5 centimetres in diameter, and it could lower or raise cages at up to 10 metres per second at a steam pressure of 12 to 8 atmospheres. Szyb Krug was backfilled as early as 1938 when reserves in that area were exhausted.
After 1945, following the incorporation of the mine into the Polish state system, the shaft was renamed Zabrze II, though the name Carnall persisted in common usage. The western field was gradually wound down through the 1950s as production shifted to the eastern field. In 1965, the mine directorate established the Ośrodek Propagandy Górnictwa as a tourist attraction at the decommissioned western field, with visitors descending Szyb Zabrze II to the 503-metre level; this facility closed in 1979.
In 1973 all extraction in the western-field area ceased. From 1983 the shaft belonged to the merged Kopalnia Węgla Kamiennego Zabrze-Bielszowice. The decision to backfill was taken in 1985 and the filling work was carried out between 1990 and 1993.
The steam engine continued to operate Szyb Carnall until the backfilling began, and was retained in place. In 1993 the Muzeum Górnictwa Węglowego w Zabrzu created the Skansen Górniczy Królowa Luiza on the site, incorporating the Carnall shaft complex. The surface buildings, listed in the regional heritage register in 1993, include the headframe building, the winding-engine house, the compressor building, the bathhouse, and the administrative building.
A programme of renovation from the early 2000s onwards installed a viewing platform on the headframe, restored the headframe building interior as an exhibition space, and brought the steam engine back to demonstrational working order; it is described as the oldest working winding engine in Europe and gives hourly demonstrations to visitors. In 2009 the shaft was partially re-excavated to a depth of 40 metres to allow tourist access to the underground section of the Główna Kluczowa Sztolnia Dziedziczna, which runs from the base of Szyb Carnall beneath the city to the Miarki Street outlet, a distance of 2,190 metres. The final phase of surface revitalisation was completed in June 2021, and the resulting Strefa Carnall — declared the largest post-industrial cultural zone in Poland — was formally opened in July of that year.
The wider Zabrze hard coal mine complex, including both the Królowa Luiza and Guido sites together with the underground adit, was designated a Pomnik Historii by decree of the President of the Republic of Poland on 14 July 2020.