Guided tours through the Upper Harz Water Mgt. System –
discover the world's most important pre-industrial energy supply system underground!
Discover the hidden world of the shafts, galleries and water tunnels of the Upper Harz Water Management System underground with specially trained World Heritage Guides. Organization and registration for these tours also takes place via the Upper Harz Mining Museum. In addition to the tours described in the following, which you can book as an individual or group, the tour managers of the museum can put together an individual tour according to your wishes.
Please put on warm clothes that you don't mind getting dirty. We will provide you with a helmet, miner's lamp, rain coat and boots.
© Stefan Sobotta
Compressed air for the Hilfe Gottes mine – underground through the Eichelberg
The Knesebeck Shaft was a part of the "Hilfe Gottes" mine that was closed in 1992, the last ore mine in the Harz. This excursion will take you to the mono- and bi-directional water wheel chambers in the Mining Museum in Bad Grund as well as the hydrocompressor tower, which produced compressed air. Underground, you will explore the water transport tunnel in the Eichelberg, guided by an experienced miner. The sophisticated system served to provide the mine with water power and compressed air energy.
get further information on this guided tour
duration: around 2.5 hours · difficulty: medium
please note: The minimum age for this tour is 12 years.
© Stefan Sobotta
A journey into the depths of the earth –
19-Lachter-Stollen and 13-Lachter-Stollen Wildemann
The deep water drainage galleries that emerge in the mining town of Wildemann were some of the most important installations for Upper Harz silver mining. For centuries they drained water out of the mines higher up and without them mining operations in Zellerfeld and Clausthal would not have been possible. The miners' journey into the depths of the earth began in 1525. Starting at the Pochgraben ditch, the tour follows the path of the water above and below ground. Away from the usual guided tour route, discover the visitor mine and its highlights, the length of the galleries and the depth of the shaft. Experience the historic mining town of Wildemann on the Halbe-Höhen-Weg. Continue above ground to the mouth of the 13-Lachter-Stollen gallery.
get further information on this guided tour
duration: around 2.5 hours · difficulty: medium
© Stefan Sobotta
Bremerhöhe from above and below – mining railway and water tunnel
Experience the ridge "Bremerhöhe" both above and below ground. The trip with the mining railway takes you along a former water transport ditch, which was dug to bring water to the ore mines in the Rosenhof area. Here, lead, copper and silver ore were mined from the 16th century until 1930. Following the railway journey, an impressive tour through the "Bremerhöher Wasserlauf" water transport tunnel will bring you to the Round Rosenhof Wheel Chamber, from where you will return above ground to the Ottiliae Shaft. Equipped with a helmet, protective jacket, boots and a lamp, you will explore the tunnel and the round bi-directional water wheel chamber at the Rosenhof.
get further information on this guided tour
duration: around 3 hours · difficulty: medium
please note: The minimum age for this tour is 12 years.
![[Translate to english:] Rosenhöfer Radstube Huthaus (c) Sobotta / Stiftung Welterbe im Harz](/fileadmin/_processed_/2/5/csm_Rosenhoefer_Radstube_und_Huthaus___Stefan_Sobotta__2__df4c7d5359_0f5faa96df.jpg "[Translate to english:] Rosenhöfer Radstube Huthaus (c) Sobotta / Stiftung Welterbe im Harz")
Adventure tour Bremerhöhe
Starting at the world heritage monument in the Upper Harz, the Ottiliae Shaft, you start here on a special kind of adventure tour: A guided tour of the factory premises at the former central conveyor shaft in the Upper Harz gives you an insight into the hard working world of the miners with the highlight of the impressive machine demonstrations.
further Informationen to the tour
Duration: about 4 hours Level of difficulty: Moderate
© Stefan Sobotta
Rosenhof wheel chambers tour of discovery – Altensegener Rösche
On this exclusive discovery tour you will follow the old "Wet Gallery" through the Rosenhof mining area to a mighty, walled, round wheel chamber, which descends 24 m into the ground like the inside of a gigantic tower. The destination of the tour is the neighbouring, 15-metre-high, completely underground Oval Wheel Chamber. Already in 1822, contemporaries described it as the "most beautiful wheel chamber in the whole of the Harz". Equipped with a helmet, protective jacket, boots and a lamp, you will explore the underground installations.
get further information on this guided tour
duration: around 3.5 hours · difficulty: difficult
please note: You need to be physically fit enough to be able to climb vertical ladders and to crawl on all fours through an 80-metre-long tunnel that is only 80 centimetres high in places. The minimum age for this tour is 14 years.
© Oberharzer Bergwerksmuseum
Rosenhof mining area and Round Wheel Chamber – Traces of the past in the Clausthal Valley
Start at the World Heritage Ottiliae Shaft on the Bremerhöhe ridge at the western edge of Clausthal-Zellerfeld. On this easy tour you will discover the "sunken" Great Clausthal Valley. Huge industrial plants - the most modern of their time - once shaped the landscape. You can still see their ruins today. Together with an expert World Heritage Guide, travel through time in an industrial world that is no longer with us, hear about the function of a "pochgraben" ditch and take a look at the entrance of the Altensegener Rösche. You will visit the Round Wheel Chamber below ground before returning to the starting point along the Bremerhöher Graben ditch.
get further information on this guided tour
duration: around 2 hours · difficulty: easy
© Hansjörg Hoerseljau
For intrepid explorers through tunnels and wilderness – Big water transport tunnel tour
The Rosenhof Wheel Chambers are some of the most spectacular in mining – and not only in the Harz! Underground water tunnels, ditches and historic ore mines in the Rosenhof mining area coupled with sections of forest wilderness in the upper Innerste Valley make this long expedition a special experience. Equipped with a helmet, protective jacket, boots and a lamp, you will explore the underground installations.
get further information on this guided tour
duration: around 7 hours · difficulty: difficult
please note: You need to be physically fit enough to be able to climb vertical ladders and to crawl through an 80-metre-long tunnel that is only 80 centimetres high in places on all fours. The minimum age for this tour is 14 years.
© Hansjörg Hoerseljau
Underground to the Rich Caroline – Dorotheer Rösche and Caroline ventilation shaft
Already in the 18th and 19th centuries more than 20,000 visitors, including the writers Goethe and Heine, visited the Dorothea and Caroline Mines in Clausthal. They were the highest yielding mines in the upper Harz. On this tour you will explore part of the former energy supply system for the two mines – the Dorotheer Rösche drainage adit. It transported the used water out of the hillside and to the next water wheels lying below. You will explore the mine equipped with a helmet, protective jacket, boots and a lamp. At the end you will climb the 20 metre Caroline Ventilation Shaft (Caroline Wetterschacht) on ladders, back to the light of day.
get further information on this guided tour
duration: around 2.5 hours · difficulty: medium
please note: The minimum age for this tour is 12 years.
![[Translate to english:] Hasenbacher Wasserlauf © Stiftung Welterbe im Harz, Foto: S. Sobotta](/fileadmin/_processed_/3/6/csm_Hasenbacher_Wasserlauf____Stefan_Sobotta__1__40ae08ad30_4dfdc70537.jpg "[Translate to english:] Hasenbacher Wasserlauf © Stiftung Welterbe im Harz, Foto: S. Sobotta")
HASENBACHER WATER COURSE
Underground through the pond landscape in Buntenbock.
The Hasenbacher watercourse has its beginning below the dam of the Hasenbacher pond. This watercourse was originally created to supply the ore mines in the Rosenhöfer mining area.
Up until 1811, water was transported via the approximately 2,750 m long upper Rosenhöfer water transport ditch. Due to the risk of freezing in winter and to reduce operating costs, the Hasenbach watercourse was created and put into operation that year.
On this discovery tour we will take you through the upper Hasenbach watercourse, which is still in use today, along moats and ponds, all of which are part of the Upper Harz water management system.
Duration: 2,5 hours Difficulty: medium heavy
CONTACT
Oberharzer Bergwerksmuseum
Bornhardtstr. 16
38678 Clausthal-Zellerfeld
Tel. +49 5323-98950
info(at)bergwerksmuseum.de
www.bergwerksmuseum.de
