Scan Magazine, Issue 97, February 2017

Page 110

Scan Magazine  |  Attraction of the Month  |  Norway

At the Norwegian Mining Museum in Kongsberg, you can go on guided tours 342 metres below ground in old silver mines, stretching 2.3 kilometres into the mountain and dating back to 1623. Left: Photo: Bjørn Isaksen. Top right: Photo: Norsk Bergverksmuseum. Right: Photo: Christian Berg

Attraction of the Month, Norway

Deep inside the Silver Mines The Norwegian Mining Museum in Kongsberg welcomes you on a historical journey deep underground into the city’s old mines, where silver was extracted by brave workers for more than 300 years. When you return to the surface, you can witness a vast collection of Norwegian minerals, tools, coins, weapons, skis and the world’s biggest exhibition of native silver. By Eirik Elvevold

In 1623, two Norwegian children named Helga and Jacob were shepherding their cattle on a hill southwest of Oslo. Tagging along was their ox, who suddenly scraped his horns along the mountainside, uncovering something shiny in the dark rock. Helga and Jacob immediately ran back to tell their parents. They turned the newfound silver into buttons and started selling them around the region, but they were quickly arrested for suspicious behaviour and forced to give up their secret spot. “At least that’s how the story goes. What we know for sure is that as soon as the Danish-Norwegian king, Christian IV, heard about it, he founded the mining town of Kongsberg, meaning the ‘King’s Mountain’, to extract the silver. Without 110  |  Issue 97  |  February 2017

the mines, Kongsberg would probably still be a tiny village,” explains Halvor Sælebakke, sales and communication consultant at the Norwegian Mining Museum. Together with a range of unique collections and exhibitions at the museum, including the world’s largest amount of native silver, 300 mine shafts are still intact in the hills surrounding the city, baring witness to the great development that followed the initial findings, when the Kongsberg Silver Mines grew into Norway’s largest mine and a coinproducing powerhouse in the DanishNorwegian economy. “We now take visitors on a train ride deep down into a hidden world of stopes, adits

and shafts, where they will be guided through the King’s Mine, see the unique elevator ‘Fahrkunst’ from 1881, and learn more about the hard and humbling life of these brave, Norwegian miners, who spent so much of their lives working in the dark. We also organise all kinds of events in The Banquet Hall, which was built in 1943. Just imagine having dinner and drinks with the company 342 metres underground,” says Sælebakke.

A tour of the Kongsberg Silver Mines in numbers: 300 mine shafts 342 metres below the surface 2.3 kilometres into the mountain Six degrees Celsius 200 people can fit in the 300-squaremetre Banquet Hall (with full licence and Wi-Fi).

For more information, please visit: www.norsk-bergverksmuseum.no


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Scan Magazine, Issue 97, February 2017 by Scan Client Publishing - Issuu