Active Upper Silesian hard coal mine operating as Ruch Wesoła within KWK Mysłowice-Wesoła, with multiple working shafts and headframes on site.
KWK Mysłowice-Wesoła is one of the largest hard coal mines in Poland and Europe, formed on 1 January 2007 through the merger of two historic Upper Silesian collieries: KWK Mysłowice, whose origins reach back to the granting of the mining field "Danzig" on 18 May 1837, and KWK Wesoła, constructed from 1911 for Prince Jan Henryk XV Hochberg of Pless and brought into production in 1914 under the name Fürstengrube. The Wesoła component passed through several name changes — Książę from 1922, Harcerska from 1937 and again from 1946, and Lenin from 1967 to 1990 — before taking the name Wesoła. Following the 2007 merger, Ruch Mysłowice continued producing coal until 7 November 2008, when the final tonne was raised.
That section was transferred to the Spółka Restrukturyzacji Kopalń in June 2015 and its surface structures progressively demolished, with the headframe of szyb Łokietek surviving under heritage protection. Ruch Wesoła remains in active production under Polska Grupa Górnicza, operating five shafts — Bronisław, Piotr, Karol, Wacław, and Wentylacyjny II — at working levels reaching 865 metres.
The Mysłowice component of KWK Mysłowice-Wesoła has its recorded origins on 18 May 1837, when the mining field "Danzig" was granted at what is now Mysłowice. The founding partners included Aleksander Mieroszewski, mayor Fryderyk Gawron, merchant Loebel Danzinger, Antoni Kołodziejski of Szopienice, and Franz von Winckler. In 1866 the mine was consolidated with the adjoining "Neu Danzig" field under the unified name Myslowitz.
The operation was among the most technically advanced in the region: in 1880 it became the first mine in Silesia to install a Koepe winding system, and in 1901 it was the first mine anywhere in the world to apply hydraulic stowing on an industrial scale to fill voids left by coal extraction. The mine was managed successively by Gwarectwo Myslowitz, the Katowicka Spółka Akcyjna dla Górnictwa i Hutnictwa, and from 1937 by Wspólnota Interesów Górniczo-Hutniczych. In 1940 it was seized by the Hermann Göring Werke concern.
After 1945 it passed to the Katowickie Zjednoczenie Przemysłu Węglowego and was subsequently incorporated into the Katowicki Holding Węglowy S.A. in 1993. In 1987 a coal-dust explosion at Mysłowice killed 18 miners. The Wesoła component began when construction of a deep mine was started in 1911 at the eastern edge of the Murcki commune, on land belonging to Prince Jan Henryk XV Hochberg of Pless.
The mine, known as Fürstengrube, was brought into production in 1914. After the 1922 partition of Upper Silesia its name was polonised to Książę. Between 1 August 1925 and 1 January 1929 it was temporarily merged with the neighbouring Emanuel mine (later KWK Murcki).
From 1 January 1937 it operated as Harcerska, and again under that name from 1 January 1946. From January 1967 it was renamed Lenin, retaining that name until 1990, when it reverted to Wesoła. In 1978 cosmonaut Mirosław Hermaszewski descended to what was then the mine's lowest working level.
By 2006 Wesoła had become the largest mine in Katowicki Holding Węglowy in terms of coal processing capacity, workforce, and operational resources, with approximately 220 million tonnes of recoverable reserves and around 3,800 employees. On 1 January 2007 KWK Wesoła and KWK Mysłowice were formally merged to create KWK Mysłowice-Wesoła. The combined operation was taken over by Polska Grupa Górnicza on 1 April 2017.
Ruch Mysłowice ceased production on 7 November 2008 and was transferred to the Spółka Restrukturyzacji Kopalń in June 2015. From 2015 the former Mysłowice surface complex underwent progressive demolition: in 2018 the headframe of szyb Łokietek was registered for preservation, along with the winding-engine house and several other industrial buildings. On 22 August of that year the 200-tonne steel headframe of szyb Sas was felled by a specialist contractor.
The city of Mysłowice acquired the Ruch Mysłowice land and surviving listed structures from Spółka Restrukturyzacji Kopalń in 2021. On 6 October 2014 a methane explosion at Ruch Wesoła killed five miners and injured 26. In November 2017 nine miners were injured in a rock-burst at the same ruch at a depth of 665 metres.
A further fatal accident occurred in November 2018, when a miner was buried by fallen rock at the 665-metre level. Ruch Wesoła continues to operate under KWK Piast-Ziemowit from the Polska Grupa Górnicza, extracting hard coal from seams 416, 501, and 510 at levels 230 m, 465 m, 665 m, and 865 m across a mining area of approximately 57.45 km². Recoverable reserves were assessed at approximately 232 million tonnes, with production perspectives extending to at least 2041.