The oldest, the most beautiful and the only show mine for miles around that is almost always dry – a mine where mainly gold and silver were extracted more than 700 years ago.
Besides an impressive exhibition of minerals and gold prospecting, the surface exhibition displays collections of miners’ lamps, surveying instruments and a wealth of historical mining artefacts, as well as a typical miner’s room and a room devoted to Hodruša lace. According to Eva Trenčanová (who died aged 97), the last of the famous generation of Hodruša lacemakers, it was the skilled lacemakers of Hodruša who decorated the train of Queen Elizabeth II’s wedding dress.
One of the highlights of the surface exhibition is a demonstration of ore crushing and processing in a working stamp mill driven by a water wheel. Before you enter the underground section you are given a helmet, a coat and a torch, so you can experience a genuine trip down the mine. Outside, by arrangement, there is a mini lesson in gold panning and using miners’ tools. You can park right in front of the building.
Interestingly, Hodruša-Hámre is also home to the last gold mine still in operation, the Rozália Mine. Each tonne of rock extracted yields about 10 grams of gold. The mine is not open to the public because it is still working.
