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The museum area includes the whole zone mined on the Passeier side, the true Schneeberg, with more than 150 km of galleries and the historical miners' village (now administered by Moos in Passeier, near Rabenstein). Work in Ridnauntal passed almost without interruption from mine to museum. But at Schneeberg, during the last phase of work after 1967, when St. Martin was abandoned and ore was carried through the new Poschhaus gallery, many things were destroyed or abandoned to all the harshness of nature in the mountains. The uninhabited miners' village at 2,354 m soon became a rusty 'ghost town', and the roofs and windows of nearly all its buildings were seriously damaged. The abandoned galleries suffered the same fate: the mouths and many stretches, previously held up by wooden supports, collapsed. Infiltrations of water and soil blocked many parts of the old labyrinth. It was as if the mountain wished to heal its wounds.
Only in 1985, when the drivers of two excavators, without authorization, inexplicably and wildly drove their huge machines about the streets of Schneeberg, was there a sudden cry of alarm among the population of Passeier regarding the safety of the plant. General criticism led to the foundation of the Committee of Schneeberg in Passeier, and accelerated the planning of a museum within the framework of the South Tyrol Museum of Mines, on which work had started in 1981 on the initiative of the provincial councillor Karl Oberhauser.
On July 13 1996, temporary restoration works were completed, among celebrations. In the centre of the museum, the St. Martin mining village, Dr. Luis Durnwalder, on behalf of the provincial authorities, formally opened the newly restored buildings: the clerks' lodgings and the hotel, acting as a refuge hut, and the old forge as exhibition hall. The stables near the river were opened as a properly functioning pasture area and the lower dormitory was made safe. At Seemoos, the crushing and turbine building was given a new shingled roof, and the foundations of the crushing-mills and the oldest washeries were cleared and made safe again.
As a shorter alternative to the day-long guided tours through the Karl and Poschhaus galleries, the Lorenzi gallery in the Himmelreich was opened for a distance of about 150 m and equipped for tourists. The refuge hut managers also show visitors round the museum sector.
The exhibition is open every day. Guided tours lasting 2 hours (miners' village, mining area, Lorenzi gallery, searching for ore) are also available. There are also one-day excursions through the Karl and Poschhaus galleries, starting from the road to the Timmelsjoch.
In the next few years, large-scale amplification is planned for the museum:
> Repair to the roofing in front of the Lorenzi gallery in Himmelreich
> Restoration of the old hydraulically operated forge along the river, with equipment
> Consolidation of the 'hospital' in the buildings along the river
> Restoration of the bucket elevator system from Seemoos to St. Martin
> Survey and possible opening of the main St. Martin gallery, starting directly from St. Martin
> Survey of the Kaindl gallery which, after its possible re-opening, could bring the two museum areas closer together.
In conclusion, we must remember that the traditional concept of a 'museum' does not fit the environment of Schneeberg. Its sheer surface area, alone, exceeds that of any ordinary museum. Even the various routes of ascent (which, fortunately, have remained closed to traffic) are integral parts of the museum of Schneeberg, and prepare visitors suitably for their tour. The whole mountain, from the car-parks on the road to the Timmelsjoch (1,700 m) to the Schneebergscharte (2,700m), is marked by centuries of mining activity. Even with extra funding, in the future only a small part of the whole mining plant will be open to visitors.
Exhibition hall
Essential information on mining at Schneeberg may be viewed in the restructured forge, covering about 150 sq.m., at St. Martin:
> A collection of Schneeberg minerals
> Historical tools and equipment
> Photographs of the village and of life high up in the mountains
> A model of Schneeberg
> Historical miners' costumes
> How miners' lighting equipment developed
> Various kinds of manual work carried out by the Schneeberg workforce
> Everyday objects
> Maps of the galleries
> Coining a Schneeberg silver coin, changing year by year, and an assortment of historical silver coins of the Tyrol from 1270 to 1809
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history
history of mining on Schneeberg
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