deutsch italiano english

kostenlose counter by www.counter-kostenlos.net

Not internally connected with the mine complex of Schneeberg, the Kaindl gallery, with its entry on the Passeier side at an altitude of 2,530 metres, is the highest of all. It owes its planning and name to Paul Kaindl, who arrived at Schneeberg as mine foreman in 1712. As a tunnel linking Schneeberg and the Lazzacher Tal, 200 m under the Schneebergscharte (2,700 m), this gallery must have greatly improved the main route to Maiern. Avoiding a hour’s steep climb and descent, it also guaranteed a safer link between Val Ridnaun and Sterzing, protecting workers against bad weather and avalanches, and it could also be used in winter.
The excavation of the gallery under the Knappenjoch began in 1720 under the mine foreman Franz Söll, successor to Paul Kaindl. The save labour, the gallery was excavated along a clay seam. There was one terrible accident, of which documentation remains:
‘Seven miners were trapped by a rockfall. Their mates feverishly tried to reach them. The wretched men worked from the inside to free themselves. For ten days their desperate cries could be heard, and then there was silence. When the rescuers reached them two weeks later, they had all died of hunger. One dead miner still held a clog in his hand, which he had been gnawing at in hunger.’ (Antonia Ennemoser)
In April 1727 the Kaindl gallery was finished. Six hundred and eighty metres long, it linked the two parts of the mine and could easily be walked in a quarter of an hour, until its partial collapse and compulsory closure in 1985. Although it had originally been built only for the passage of people, in 1858 it was widened to allow the passage of draught animals and, in 1871, during the building of the new ore transport plant, it was equipped with rails. Later, attempts were made to extract blende from a deposit, but it was not very profitable.
In recent years at Ridnaun and in Passeier, many requests for the Kaindl gallery to be re-opened have been received. Prospecting work is planned over the next few years with this aim in mind.