By Ines Keane
Goslar sits at 255 metres on the north-western slope of the Harz, according to Wikipedia, and just to the south the Rammelsberg rises to 636 metres. That hill explains the town.
What UNESCO lists
UNESCO inscribed the property in 1992 as the Mines of Rammelsberg, Historic Town of Goslar and Upper Harz Water Management System, and it has since been extended, with minor changes in 2008 and a significant one in 2010. The old town, UNESCO says, holds about 1,500 timber-framed houses from the fifteenth to the nineteenth century. It adds that Goslar was one of the seats of the Holy Roman Empire from the tenth to the twelfth century.
The same entry describes the mines as worked continuously from the eleventh century until the 1980s. Other pages give an earlier start, which is the next section.
When did the mining start?
The sources do not agree, and we show them side by side.
- UNESCO: continuously from the eleventh century.
- Harzspots, a regional travel portal: ore mined from 968.
- Showcaves, a mine-guide site: silver mining is first mentioned in documents in 968, though the Rammelsberg is not named, and that is still debated. It also reports a leather find dated by carbon-14 to the ninth or tenth century.
Our reading: 968 is a document that may or may not mean this hill, so the eleventh century is the safer date for continuous work. The sources do not say so.
All of them agree on the end. The ore mine closed in 1988, after more than a thousand years of mining copper, lead and zinc, and about 27 million tonnes of ore had come out, according to Showcaves and Harzspots. A museum followed in 1989.
Inside the hill
The museum’s own site lists three buildings, the Storehouse, the Ore Dressing Plant and the Central Power Station, with exhibitions on geology, mineralogy, history and contemporary art. Its tours include the Roeder Gallery (water and fire), a mine-train tour on twentieth-century mining, an ore-processing tour, an inclined elevator tour, a children’s tour and the Rathstiefste Gallery, which the museum files under the Middle Ages.
Showcaves explains the first of those. The Roeder adit is a drainage gallery named after Johann Christoph Röder, who modernised the mine between 1797 and 1805, and it leads to large wooden water wheels that powered pumps. Showcaves puts the Rathstiefster adit before 1150 and 1,600 metres long, built to drain the workings, with the oldest written record dated 1271. Harzspots adds spoil heaps and a tower called the Maltermeister.
Harzspots also calls it the only mine in the world in continuous operation for more than a thousand years, and the largest contiguous deposit of lead, copper and zinc ore. Both are the portal’s claims, and we have not tested them.
The water that moved the machines
UNESCO treats the Upper Harz water system as part of the same listing. It says the system developed over roughly 800 years, began in the Middle Ages under Cistercian monks, and grew on a large scale from the late sixteenth to the nineteenth century. It consists of artificial ponds, small channels, tunnels and underground drains, and it supplied water power for mining and metalworking.
The town above ground
A travel blog, Chris-crossing Germany, describes the market-square house with a mechanical clock whose figures honour the town’s mining history, and says the show runs four times a day. Wikipedia says market rights date back to 1025 and that the Market Church was built in 1151, with a north tower that can be climbed.
The imperial palace is where the sources part again. Wikipedia says Conrad II celebrated Christmas in Goslar in 1024 and had the foundations laid in 1025, and that the palace was later restored under the Hohenzollern rulers, with the museum inside described as a nineteenth-century reconstruction of the medieval building. The blog says only that the palace is over a thousand years old and links its construction to 1040. Those are not the same date, and neither page explains the gap.
Dates in order
- 968: first documentary mention of silver mining, not clearly this hill, according to Showcaves.
- 1025: palace foundations and market rights, according to Wikipedia.
- 1797 to 1805: Röder’s modernisation, according to Showcaves.
- 1988: the ore mine closes, according to Showcaves and Harzspots.
- 1989: museum opens, according to Showcaves.
- 1992: UNESCO inscription, according to UNESCO and Showcaves.
What kind of sources these are
UNESCO’s World Heritage page, the museum’s own site, a regional travel portal, a mine-guide site, one travel blog and Wikipedia. The portal and the museum promote the place, and the blog is one traveller’s view. We left out prices, opening hours and tour bookings, and a medieval mining accident that Showcaves lists.
Planning around the season
Our reading: in November and December, when the light is short, the underground tours and indoor exhibitions suit the weather and the timber streets suit a dry afternoon. No source says so, and the museum’s own site is the place to check what runs when.
Quick answers
When did the Rammelsberg ore mine close? According to Showcaves, a mine-guide site, the last mine car left on a regular shift in 1988, after more than 1,000 years of copper, lead and zinc mining. A museum opened in 1989.
How many timber-framed houses does Goslar’s old town have? UNESCO says the historic centre contains about 1,500 timber-framed houses dating from the fifteenth to the nineteenth century.
What can visitors do at the Rammelsberg? The museum’s own site lists a museum and visitor mine with tours, including the Roeder Gallery (water and fire), a mine train, an ore-processing tour and an inclined elevator tour.
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Roam first. Shop later.