Barbarastollen

Useful Information

Location:	Albertus-Magnus-Platz, 50923 Köln. Universität zu Köln in Köln. Below the Aula in the cellar. (50.9282888, 6.9293045)
Open:	Tag des offenen Denkmals, second Sunday in September. After appointment. [2025]
Fee:	free. [2025]
Classification:	Replica Underground Mine Mining Museum Coal Mine
Light:	Incandescent
Dimension:	L=40 m.
Guided tours:	D= 1h, Max=15.
Photography:	allowed
Accessibility:	no
Bibliography:	Franz Jungeblodt, Csaba Peter Rakoczy (2003): Das unterirdische Köln zu Fuß Köln (Bachem) 2003 o. A. (2003): Das unterirdische Köln. Der Barbarastollen unter dem Universitätsgebäude in: Kölner Universitäts-Journal, 2003, Heft 3, S. 26
Address:	Institut und Poliklinik für Arbeitsmedizin, Umweltmedizin und Präventionsforschung, Berlin-Kölnische Allee 4, 50969 Köln (Zollstock), Tel: +49-221-478-76781. E-mail:
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

1932	as part of the Museum of Trade and Industry.
1980er	rediscovered hidden behind a shelf.
1984	Prof. em. Piekarski achieves the restoration and reopening of the tunnel in cooperation with Ruhrkohle AG.

Description

The Barbarastollen in Cologne is not really a mine, it is a mine museum or artificial mine, a mine replica. Its creation is linked to the construction of the university’s new main building, which began in 1929. In 1930, the Handelshochschule (commercial college) applied for the construction of a mine replica for teaching, which was approved very quickly, and in the same year the Essen painter and graphic artist Kurt Holl began construction. However, construction of the main building was halted in the same year as a result of the global economic crisis. Kurt Holl continued to build the training mine nevertheless. Many sources claim that the Barbarastollen was built in 1932, but construction was actually completed and it was opened that year. However, the main building was only completed and officially opened in 1935 after construction was resumed. The tunnel was intended to demonstrate the technology of coal mining to students of the Faculty of Economics and Social Sciences at the Cologne School of Management. During the Rhenish-Westphalian Economic Exhibition (01-APR-1933 to 30-SEP-1933), the tunnel was open daily. It was then part of the Museum of Trade and Industry, but fell into oblivion during the Second World War.

The training mine was rediscovered by chance in the early 1980s after a door that had been hidden behind a shelf for decades was broken open. Neither the mine nor the room in which it is located were marked on the building plans. In 1984 Prof. em. Dr. Claus Piekarski organized the restauration of the tunnel with the support of the Ruhrkohle AG. The restauration took several years and the tunnel was finally reopened in the early 1990s. Since then, the show gallery has been part of the Institut für Arbeitsmedizin, Umweltmedizin und Präventionsforschung (Institute for Occupational Medicine, Environmental Medicine and Prevention Research), and so the occupational health consequences of mining, such as pneumoconiosis, are also explained on the guided tours. In general, it serves to illustrate the harsh conditions under which coal was mined in the 1930s.

In addition to layers of rock and coal seams, you can see different types of support, the Thuringian and Polish timber support and the support with iron rings. There are rails for the wagons on the ground and conveyor belts, drills, compressors and a functioning freight elevator in its lattice shed. The coal came from Aachen, the machines from mines all over Germany. The machines on display include a pit cage, a winding machine, a pneumatic drill, struts, tracks, a locomotive, a wagon and a signal. A curiosity is the mining license of the mine, which never was one.