Black Trout Adit
Black Trout Adit is the longest (600 meters) underground tourist route in Poland travelled by boats. It's a part of one of 8 adits dug in the area to drain the workings. The Black Trout Adit is located in a park in the west of the town Tarnowskie Góry. Access is by two shafts Ewa and Sylwester (the traffic is pendular). The guide puts the boats in motion and tells the stories connected with the place, lit by acetylene lamps.
History
The region of Tranowskie Góry is known for historic lead ore mining. The lead ores contains a large admixture of silver. Beginning in 1526 when new deposits of lead (mostly galena) were found, the settlement started to grow quickly. In 1526 Jan II the Good the Duke of Opole granted the community the status of an independent mining town. The name of the town Tarnowskie Góry has a mining genesis. The first part "Tarnowskie" comes from the name of village "Tarnowice" where deposits of lead enriched by silver were found. Currently Tarnowice (actually Stare Tarnowice) is a district of Tarnowskie Góry. The second part of the name "Góry" means "mountains". It comes from the elevation around numerous shafts dug for silver. Mining industry had to wrestle with the problem of water flooding workings. To prevent it in 1788 the first steam engine was brought from England by Fryderyk Wilhelm Hrabia von Reden. The other way to drain workings was digging adits which piped the water using the difference of level. There were 8 adits in Tarnowskie Góry. A 600-meter-part of one of them is available for tourists. The lead-ore mining in Tarnowskie Góry stopped in 1912 because of resource shortage. However a huge amount of past mining traces is left, both underground and overground. See: Historic Silver Mine
The Historic Silver Mine is also nearby.
External links
Coordinates: 50°25′49″N 18°48′02″E / 50.4303°N 18.8006°E