The surviving shaft and steel lattice headframe of the former Kopalnia Fiedlersglück zinc and lead ore mine in Bytom, now operating as the Centralna Pompownia Bolko and entered in the municipal heritage inventory.
Bolko is a zinc and lead ore mine shaft in the Rozbark district of Bytom, at ulica Kruszcowa 4. It originated as part of the Kopalnia Fiedlersglück, a zinc and lead ore mine established in 1859 and owned by the Henckel von Donnersmarck family. The shaft was sunk around 1904–1906 to an initial depth of 100 metres.
The steel single-prop lattice headframe was erected in 1908 and a drum-type winding engine manufactured by AEG and Huta Donnersmarck in Zabrze was installed in 1906. After the Second World War the mine passed to state administration and eventually to the Zakłady Górniczo-Hutnicze Orzeł Biały. Following the end of zinc and lead ore extraction in the Bytom basin in the late 1980s and early 1990s, the shaft was converted to serve as a central pumping station.
Between 1985 and 1989 it was deepened to 129.3 metres and over 2,300 metres of water drainage galleries were driven. The Centralna Pompownia Bolko has been in continuous operation since 1988, pumping approximately 30 cubic metres of water per minute from the former ore workings to prevent flooding of the wider Bytom and Piekary Śląskie area. The shaft is the last surviving ore-mine shaft in Bytom.
The surface complex was entered in the municipal heritage inventory of Bytom in 2023.
Bolko takes its name from the medieval Piast Duke Bolko of Bytom, after whom the broader Bytom area was historically known. The Kopalnia Fiedlersglück was established as a zinc and lead ore mine in 1859 and was the property of the Henckel von Donnersmarck family. The mine's name derived from the German term for good fortune, Fiedlersglück, commemorating the family.
The mine later came to be known as Kopalnia Orzeł Biały (White Eagle Mine). The Bolko shaft was sunk around 1904–1906. In 1906 the drum-type winding engine, manufactured by AEG and Huta Donnersmarck in Zabrze, was installed.
In 1908 the steel single-prop lattice-frame headframe was erected over the shaft. The headframe is a single-prop (jednostrzałowa) steel lattice construction with two sheave wheels positioned at the same level on the headframe trunk, and is braced by horizontal cross-members. Initially the shaft reached a depth of approximately 100 metres.
Ore extracted at Bolko was transported by aerial ropeway (the Polish term luftbana is used in sources) to a processing plant at Szarlej (now part of Piekary Śląskie), and after the post-First World War partition of Silesia — when Szarlej was assigned to Poland — to the Neue Victoria / Nowy Dwór mine instead. After the Second World War, the mine was nationalised. It was administered initially as part of the Zakłady im.
Waryńskiego and later as part of the Zakłady Górniczo-Hutnicze Orzeł Biały. Mining continued in the broader area through five ore-mine operations: Waryński, Nowy Dwór, Dąbrówka, Marchlewski, and Orzeł Biały. The first of these, the Nowy Dwór section, was decommissioned in December 1978; the last, the Dąbrówka section at Piekary Śląskie, was closed in December 1989.
As the ore fields were progressively exhausted and the mines closed, the problem of protecting the remaining workings and the underlying areas of Bytom and Piekary Śląskie from flooding became critical. Between 1985 and 1989 Szyb Bolko was deepened from its original approximately 100 metres to 129.3 metres (with a sump of 31.4 metres making a total of 129.3 m, per different sources). Two drainage galleries totalling over 2,300 metres in length were driven and 13 pump assemblies were installed.
The Centralna Pompownia Bolko was brought into operation in June 1988. In 1989 the process of decommissioning the individual local pumping stations at the former ore mines began, so that the central station at Bolko could take over drainage of all the former ore workings; the last local pumping station was switched off on 30 April 1990. The pumping station is capable of extracting approximately 30 cubic metres of water per minute, pumping it through large-diameter pipes to the Brynica river at Piekary Śląskie after treatment.
In 1947, by order of the Minister of Industry and Trade dated 16 June 1947, the shaft was transferred to the Zakłady im. Ludwika Waryńskiego (later part of ZGH Orzeł Biały). On 31 December 2020 the Centralna Pompownia Bolko sp. z o.o. was purchased by the Spółka Restrukturyzacji Kopalń and entered the Centralny Zakład Odwadniania Kopalń.
Pump operation is currently funded by a state subsidy administered by the Minister of Economy under a special statute. The shaft complex — comprising the machine-room building, the top-shaft building, and the headframe — was entered in the gminne ewidencje zabytków (municipal heritage inventory) of Bytom in 2023. The surviving two-cage hoist, operated by the 1906 AEG drum winding engine, continues to be used for transporting personnel and materials to the 129.3-metre level.
Water extracted from the shaft in 1990 was noted to be heavily contaminated with high concentrations of zinc, lead, and sulphate ions, though these concentrations were recorded as very slowly decreasing. The shaft is described as the last surviving ore-mine shaft in Bytom, and the surface complex is located adjacent to the Bolko Loft, a residential conversion of the former lamp room (lampiarnia) of ZGH Orzeł Biały by architect Przemo Łukasik.