Besucherbergwerk Bergfreiheit

In the Berg Freiheit visitor mine, you can find out this and much more about the hard work of miners in the Middle Ages.

There has been evidence of mining in Snow White Village since 1552. With the award of the "Bergfreyheit" on September 14th, 1561 by Count Samuel v. Waldeck, the mining village for the extraction of silver and copper ore is founded and has been bearing this place name ever since. An extensive system of tunnels, now well secured, runs through the Kellerwald Mountains, especially the "light" near Bergfreiheit ".

Here you can clearly experience the narrow, sometimes very low corridors in which the miners - often still children - once underground their heavy and dangerous ones There were frequent accidents or collapses in which the workers were injured or even killed. It is quite possible that the miners, who had aged prematurely due to crippling, poor nutrition and lack of sunlight, were ridiculed by others as "dwarves". Mining in the Kellerwald was probably already carried out by the Celts. A ring wall on the "Wüstegarten", the highest mountain (675 m above sea level) in the Kellerwald, is evidence of Celtic activity.

The hut fires have long been extinguished and the roar of the hammers has ceased It has become quiet in the Urfftal, may this calm endure and give many people rest and relaxation.