Revitalised early twentieth-century hard coal shaft complex of KWK Concordia, now a listed heritage site with restaurant, museum, and water-well function on the Silesian Industrial Monuments Route.
Szyb Maciej is a preserved surface complex of the former Kopalnia Węgla Kamiennego Concordia in the Maciejów district of Zabrze, Upper Silesia. The current surface ensemble, comprising a headframe, winding house, engine room, and associated buildings, was constructed from the early 1920s under the German designation Westschacht, serving as the tenth shaft of the Concordia mine for ventilation and drainage. After 1945 the complex passed successively through the Concordia, Ludwik, Rokitnica, and Pstrowski collieries.
Extraction in the immediate area ended in 1978, and the shaft was later converted into a deep groundwater well. The complex was entered on the heritage register of Silesia Province in 2005, and was subsequently revitalised by Przedsiębiorstwo Górnicze DEMEX under Dr Zbigniew Barecki. Today the pithead building houses a restaurant and visitor facilities; the engine room retains its original winding equipment; and the ventilation canal has been reopened.
The site is listed on the Szlak Zabytków Techniki Województwa Śląskiego.
The history of coal extraction in the area of Szyb Maciej reaches back to the early nineteenth century. Kopalnia Concordia was established in the centre of present-day Zabrze by Karl Lazarus von Donnersmarck, who obtained a coal concession of 1.5 square kilometres in 1828. The mine began working in 1841, exploiting the shallow Pochhammer seam (now designated seam 510). In 1848 management passed to his son Guido Henckel von Donnersmarck, and in 1851 the Michael coal basin was annexed to the concession. A coking plant and ironworks, Donnersmarckshütte, were built nearby in subsequent decades. By the early twentieth century the deepened Concordia shaft had reached 575 metres, and the engine rooms were equipped with steam winding machines with drum diameters reaching 8 metres. In 1902 the first electric winding machine on the Upper Silesian coalfield using the Leonard-Ilgner system was installed at the Wetter ventilation shaft, manufactured by Donnersmarckhütte A.G.
The surface complex now known as Szyb Maciej was built from the early 1920s under the name Westschacht, making it the tenth shaft of the Concordia colliery. Construction of the pithead building and the steel lattice headframe dates to 1922, with the headframe completed between 1922 and 1928 at the Donnersmarckhütte A.G. works in Zabrze. The building uses a steel-framed, brick-infilled construction. The engine room, also built in 1922 in brick, houses a double-drum electric winding machine of the 1920s manufactured by Siemens Schuckert Werke AG Berlin, complete with Leonard current-conversion equipment of the same manufacturer. Two rope sheaves of 3,000 millimetres diameter are mounted in the headframe crown on a shared platform. The shaft served principally for ventilation and drainage of the western section of the Concordia concession area.
After the Second World War the complex passed successively into the organisation of Kopalnia Concordia, then Kopalnia Ludwik, then Kopalnia Rokitnica, and finally Kopalnia Pstrowski. In 1971 the shaft ceased its extraction function and was converted to drainage, ventilation, and personnel access use. Extraction activity in the immediate area of Szyb Maciej ended in 1978. In 1992 Kopalnia Pstrowski resolved to liquidate both the underground workings and the surface complex at Szyb Maciej entirely. That decision was ultimately not carried through. Przedsiębiorstwo Górnicze DEMEX, led by Dr Zbigniew Barecki, reached an agreement with Kopalnia Pstrowski for the abandonment of the liquidation plan and acquired the whole complex. In 1993 the shaft itself was converted into a deep groundwater well drawing from Triassic levels, a use that continues to supply drinking water to the local area.
Revitalisation and adaptation of the buildings to new functions followed from the 1990s. The former pithead building was converted to host a restaurant, a bistro named Pod Napięciem, and visitor facilities; the uppermost level, where the main extraction level once operated, became a banquet hall. A viewpoint platform was opened at the top of the headframe. The ventilation canal was reopened and is accessible to visitors. A 1914 steam engine formerly belonging to Kopalnia Jadwiga in Zabrze-Biskupice was installed in the complex as an exhibit. A railway viaduct that formerly connected the colliery with Gliwice and Bytom was repurposed as an outdoor performance stage.
On 30 December 2005 the complex at ul. Srebrna 6 in Zabrze-Maciejów was entered on the heritage register of Silesia Province (register A) by decision of the Silesian Voivodeship Conservator of Monuments (decision number K-RD-KL/4160/8165/159/05). The protected objects include the pithead building with headframe and the original signal operator's position, the weighbridge building, and the engine room with its winding machine, Leonard converter, and all related equipment. The complex also carries a spoil heap from the period 1915 to 1970, likewise listed. The site holds the Gwiazda Techniki designation on the Szlak Zabytków Techniki Województwa Śląskiego and was awarded the Zabytek Zadbany prize by the Chief Conservator of Monuments. It is the only site in Silesia Province to appear on both the Szlak Zabytków Techniki and the Śląskie Smaki culinary route.