Mina Petrila — Puțul cu Schip Petrila · Hunedoara · Romania

Coal seams beneath the Petroșani Basin in the Jiu Valley formed during the Oligocene–Miocene from the coalification of marsh vegetation in a subtropical environment. Surface outcrops in the Petrila area were among those noted and first worked during the proto-industrial phase of Jiu Valley coal exploitation from around 1840. The brothers Hoffmann and Karol Maderspach began surface extraction at sites including Petrila from that year under favourable Austro-Hungarian protectionist conditions.

In 1854 the initial operators formed the Societatea de Mine din Transilvania-Vest (West Transylvania Mining Society), which was acquired in 1857–58 by the Societatea Anonimă de Mine și Furnale din Brașov (Anonymous Society of Mines and Furnaces of Brașov), financed by the Wiener Bankverein, the Commercial Bank of Pest, Deutsche Bank, and the Banque de Paris et Pays-Bas. On 30 December 1858 the company Max, Egon, Fürst acquired the first formal underground mining concession on Petrila territory, registered at the Deva Tribunal under the name Concesiunea Maximilian, with a surface area of 135,349 square metres. This document is recognised as the first official mining concession granted in the Jiu Valley.

By the end of August 1869 coal seams numbered 1, 2, 4, 5, and 13 had been penetrated, and by the end of October the principal seam no. 3, which at this location was 19.5 metres thick, was also reached. A vertical shaft was sunk from the Deak gallery to the surface measuring 36.6 metres, initially used for mine ventilation and later adapted for shaft transport. Large-scale commercial extraction became viable with the opening of the Simeria–Petroșani railway in August 1870, which was extended to Petrila in 1867–70.

A preparatory works programme sunk and extended galleries to meet the productivity demands of the Austro-Hungarian imperial economy. In 1865 the Habsburg state began acquiring mine perimeters in the Jiu Valley, and the Brașov society extended its holdings to include iron ore deposits and forests, constructing smelting facilities alongside the coal operations. Workers came initially from the Austro-Hungarian Empire — Hungarians, Czechs, Poles, and Italians — forming a multicultural mining community with its own rituals, beliefs, and distinct identity centred on the mine.

In 1931 the companies Petroșani and Lupeni merged under the name Societatea Minieră Petroșani, and a modern coal preparation facility with a capacity of 270 tonnes per hour was constructed at Petrila, described at the time as one of the largest of its kind in the world. On 20 August 1949 the Romanian-Soviet joint stock company Sovromcărbune was established by decree, with its headquarters at Petroșani. Under its direction in 1952, the Trustul Cărbunelui Petroșani, which included the Petrila mine, was formed alongside a series of other sector trusts.

Between 1970 and 1975 a second extraction shaft, Puțul 2 Est, was constructed at Petrila, incorporating a ventilation function and employing for the first time the method of mechanical sinking and concreting in sliding formwork, which eliminated the need for temporary support during shaft-sinking. The mine continuously increased its production through the communist era, reaching a peak of 1.2 million tonnes in 1983, when approximately 4,500 workers were employed at the site alone. Working conditions were described as precarious, with limited mechanisation and coal sorting carried out by hand.

On 15 November 2008 two successive methane explosions occurred approximately 240 metres underground. The first killed eight miners; a second explosion four hours later killed five rescuers. In total thirteen people died and fifteen were injured.

The disaster accelerated the mine's inclusion in the national restructuring programme. Production declined rapidly after 2008, falling to approximately 110,000 tonnes in 2014. In 2013 the mine was formally announced as scheduled for closure, and the last coal was raised on 30 October 2015 after 156 years of continuous operation.

The mine was designated the oldest in Romania and cited as one of the deepest in Europe, with the main shaft reaching approximately 940 metres. On closure the mine was transferred to the Societatea Națională de Închideri Mine Valea Jiului (SNIMVJ) for managed shutdown and demolition. The planned demolition, which would have removed all buildings and the headframe for scrap, was contested from 2011 by Ion Barbu, a topographer who had worked at the mine for fifteen years before becoming a prominent artist and cartoonist.

Barbu and a team of architects and young activists formed the Planeta Petrila initiative, which mobilised community support, organised cultural events and theatre festivals within the mine buildings, and convinced the Petrila municipality to acquire the mine facilities. The campaign was documented in the 2015 documentary film Planeta Petrila by Andrei Dascalescu, which brought the case to national attention. Barbu and colleagues officially registered the Planeta Petrila NGO and launched the Recovery through Cultural Initiatives Programme at the end of 2017, co-financed by the EU Horizon 2020 programme.

Works to renovate selected buildings are ongoing. The metal headframe, dating from 1942, has been retained along with a winding hoist of German manufacture that has been in service since 1942. A museum commemorating rescuers killed in the 2008 explosion and other Jiu Valley accidents opened within the mine complex on 15 November 2018.

Plans include a restaurant in the mine tower, a robotics centre, and an events venue. The Petrila mine has been informally described as the Academy of Romanian Mining for its architectural complexity and historical layering, with the oldest surviving buildings dating from the late 19th century.