Csolnoki Bányászklub Múzeum

Rákóczi telep Bányász Múzeum


Useful Information

Location: Csolnok.
(47.702591, 18.705776)
Open: Currently only open by appointment.
All year Sat, Sun 16-20.
[2022]
Fee: Adults HUF 500, Children HUF 300.
[2022]
Classification: SubterraneaMining Museum MineCoal Mine
Light: LightIncandescent Electric Light System
Dimension:  
Guided tours: self guided
Photography: allowed
Accessibility: no
Bibliography:  
Address: Csolnoki Bányász Hagyományőrző Egyesület, 2521 Csolnok, Szent Borbála u. 5, Tel: +36-30-587-3381. 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

27-JAN-1781 first written mention of coal mining in the Dorog coal basin, a contract between Antal Rückschuss, a miner from the Ruhr area, and József Krempf, a judge from Csolnok.
1795 mining in Annavölgy.
1845 first written contract on mining coal at Dorog drawn up between the Capter of Esztergom and the colliery managers Ferenc Wasshuber and József János Jülke.
1896 begin of large-scale mining.
1906 Dorog power plant built.
1970 begin of coal crisis.
1977 Lencsehegy mine opened.
1990s Lencsehegy mine the last operating mine.
2001 Csolnoki Bányász Klub (Csolnok Mining Club) founded.
17-OCT-2003 Lencsehegy mine closed, coal mining ends.
2005 start of open air collection.
05-SEP-2008 open air exhibition opened to the public.

Geology

The coal deposit Dorog coal basin is named after the town Dorog (Drostdorf).

Description

Csolnoki Bányászklub Múzeum (Csolnok Mining Club Museum) is the museum operated by the Csolnok Mining Club. Like many such museums there is a non-profit organisation with many volunteers who invest many hours in the preservation of old mining equipment. That's actually not special, but to call it Club museum is, it sounds a little unprofessional, which the conservative work of the club definitely is not. The museum is also called Rákóczi telep Bányász Múzeum (Rákóczi settlement Mining Museum). There were mines all around the city of Dorog, here at Csolnok, and at Mogyorósbánya. The museum collects remains from the whole area.

The Csolnoki Bányász Klub (Csolnok Mining Club) was founded in 2001 with the support of the Foundation for the Culture of the Dorog Coal Basin, the Dorog Mining Trade Union Federation, the Csolnok Miners' Pensioners' Union, and the Csolnok Municipality. The collection collection includes the relics, tools, and documents of 222 years of mining in the basin. Some of this material is from the Lencsehegy mining operation, while the rest is from voluntary donations (foresters, local entrepreneurs) and private collections. The exhibition of minerals, rocks and fossils, shows the geological structure of the Dorog Coal Basin over a period of 200 million years. A large-scale open-air exhibition of mining machinery and buildings was launched in 2005 and opened to the public in 2008. A tunnel was converted into an underground museum, there are numerous narrow gauge mine trains, and even some buildings were relocated to the site. One highlight are the remains of the cable car between Lyukóbánya and Berente, which was used for coal transport. A 9-ton mining locomotive manufactured by Ganz in 1953 was renovated. Also, an ambulance train car. An underground mining rescue station was reconstructed. The exhibition shows a great number of mining related models, machines, mine models and the model of a headframe.

The coal in the area was first discovered in 1781, and soon small amounts were mined. Since 1810 the Komárom army bought coal to replace wood for heating military buildings. In 1829 the Erste k.k. privilegierte Donau-Dampfschiffahrts-Gesellschaft (First Danube Steamship Company) was founded, which operated steam ships on the Danube. They needed coal, but had their own mines at Pécs. But they provided transport from the mines at the Danube to the cities, Buda and Pest became significant purchasers of coal. After 75 % of the buildings of Pest were destroyed by a flood in 1838, the Viennese craftsman Alajos Miesbach set up a brick factory to produce 400,000 bricks a week and used coal from Dorog to burn them. In 1845 the first written contract on mining coal at Dorog was drawn up between the Chapter of Esztergom and the colliery managers Ferenc Wasshuber and József János Jülke. The mine failed in 1850 and Miesbach bought the mining rights opening the Henrik mine in 1851, which soon became Dorog's largest mine. Some important names of this time were Vilmos Zsigmondy, the geologist Miksa Hantken, and the mining engineer Henrik Drasche. But again there was decline in production around 1875, mostly because the railway Pest-Salgótarján was built in 1867. So the coal mines at Salgótarján became a serious competitor.

The main turning point in coal mining was the construction of the Budapest-Kenyérmező railway line in 1895. It provided transport and was a customer. In 1906 the Dorog thermal power plant was built which supplied the mines with electricity. 1905 mining engineer Sándor Schmidt came to Dorog and in 1911 he became the director of the mining company of Salgótarján Kőszénbánya Rt. The town flourished until World War I. In the interwar period, Budapest's factories and population needed more and more coal, by 1922 production had already surpassed pre-war levels. As mining was increased, immigrant miners needed homes and several housing colonies were built in the 1920s and 1930s. Transylvanian coalminers moved here after the Treaty of Trianon, their hometowns were Hungarian before the war, but now they were Romanian.

There are many German names in the history of the town and the coal mines. The village was settled by various waves of German settlers after its complete destruction in the Ottoman invasion. As a result it was inhabited by people of both Hungarian and German descent. After World War II, the Germans were expelled, even if they actually lived in town since the 16th century. During the socialist era, the city became a typical socialist town with prefabricated blocks of flats. The production of the Dorog coal basin peaked between 1957 and 1967, when the rapid decline of coal production began. In 1970 the first mine closed and during the 1970s one mine after the other was closed. Lencsehegy mine was opened which soon was the last operating mine. The decline took decades, but after 222 years the coal mining in the Dorogi Basin finally ended when Lencsehegy ws closed on 17-OCT-2003.