Knappenwelt Gurgltal

Useful Information

Location:	Tschirgant 1, 6464 Tarrenz. (47.2580581, 10.7744553)
Open:	04-MAX to OCT Thu-Sun 10-16. [2025]
Fee:	Adults EUR 9, Children (10-18) EUR 3, Students EUR 7, Seniors EUR 7. Groups (15+): Adults EUR 7, Children (10-18) EUR 2. Guided: Adults EUR 10,500, Children (10-18) EUR 4. [2025]
Classification:	Replica Underground Mine Mining Museum
Light:	Incandescent
Dimension:
Guided tours:
Photography:
Accessibility:
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Address:	Knappenwelt Gurgltal, Tschirgant 1, 6464 Tarrenz, Tel: +43-664-9159994. office@knappenwelt.at
As far as we know this information was accurate when it was published (see years in brackets), but may have changed since then. Please check rates and details directly with the companies in question if you need more recent info.

History

Geology

Description

The Knappenwelt Gurgltal is a mining museum in an area where mining was the livelihood of many people in the 16th and 17th centuries. It is a kind of open-air museum with various buildings that more or less replicas of historic mining buildings. The work and life of the miners is explained here, but not in a real historical mine or mining village, but in reconstructions.

The Grubenhaus (mine house) was the administrative building of a mine, where the mine supervisors and surveyors (mining surveyors) worked. The gentlemen had somewhat more luxurious accommodations. The miners lived in the Knappenhaus (miners' quarters), which consisted more or less of a common room and a dormitory. They gathered in a large room around the central fireplace to eat and probably also to socialise, although their free time was naturally limited. In the dormitory, the miners slept close together on straw sacks. The Stollen (tunnel) is a drainage tunnel, which means it was not only used for access and transporting ore, but above all for draining the mine. The artificial tunnel was built in 2007 and shows a wide variety of types of timbering and the techniques used in mining. The Schreibstube (writing room) was the mine's archive, where accounts, lists of those entering and leaving, and the mine maps were stored. The Scheidstube (sorting room) was where women and children crushed ore suitable for manual processing on large sorting stones and then separated it into ore and waste rock. Material that could not be picked out had to be sent to the Pochwerk (crushing plant). It was driven by a water wheel and pounded the ore into sand with its wooden stamps, to which iron shoes were attached. Originally, this was done dry, but later wet crushing became common, which minimised the dust produced. The sand was then sieved and separated by weight in running water. The Schmiede (smithy) repaired and sharpened the miners' tools, which was a daily necessity, making it indispensable to have our own smithy. In the Erzhof w(ore yard), the ores were sorted by grain size and stored. It was locked.

The mining areas in the surrounding area are Hoch-Imst, Hetterwand, Alpleskopf, Tschirgant and Wannig-Handschuhspitze. There are a large number of mining relics here, but no exhibition mine or museum.