Underground Mining Museum

This is the only museum of its kind on the Balkan Peninsula: it sits underground, in the preserved galleries of a mine that was once genuinely worked. Not a reconstruction, not a set — the mine itself.

The museum occupies the "Old Mines", the first coal mine in Bulgaria, opened in 1891. Brown coal was extracted here until 1966, when the deposits ran out and the mine closed. In the 1980s, following the example of the Wieliczka salt mine in Poland, the decision was taken to turn the galleries into a museum. It opened on 26 August 1986.

Since 2013 the site has been one of the Hundred National Tourist Sites of the Bulgarian Tourist Union, listed as no. 39.

What you'll see

The displays run through two mine galleries totalling 630 metres, holding around 30 exhibits that trace the development of mining in Bulgaria.

• Authentic extraction machinery — originals rather than replicas, laid out in the order they succeeded one another over the decades.
• Support and lighting equipment — the part that best explains what the work underground was actually like.
• Transport machinery — locomotives and passenger mine cars.
• A multimedia hall, which screens the first documentary film ever made about Pernik.
• An iconostasis of St Ivan Rilski, the patron saint of miners, installed in 2012.

The "tree of happiness". By the museum entrance stands a petrified tree more than 50 million years old. Miners would touch it for luck before going down. The tradition is alive today — most visitors do it without anyone telling them to.

How visits work

Entry is by guided tour only, in groups of up to 20 people. The tour lasts about 40 minutes. Helmets are compulsory and are handed out on entry.

Bring a jacket. The temperature in the galleries is constant at just above 0 °C, whatever the weather outside. This is the advice people most often ignore and then regret: in the August heat you step from 35 degrees into near-freezing air.

Opening hours and address

• Summer hours: 10:00 – 16:00 (closed Sundays)
• Winter hours: 10:00 – 16:00 (closed Saturdays and Sundays)
• Address: 2 Fizkulturna Street, Pernik 2300

Note that in winter the museum is closed on Saturdays too — plan your weekend around it. Because entry is in guided groups, on a busy day you may have to wait for the next tour to start.

Who it suits

The tour is short, level and physically undemanding, so it works for almost anyone. Children tend to love it — mine cars and locomotives beat a case of photographs every time. If anyone in your group is uneasy in enclosed spaces, warn them beforehand: this is a real mine gallery, not an exhibition room.

Nearby

• Krakra medieval fortress — in the southwestern part of town, with panoramic platforms over the whole of Pernik. The two sites pair naturally into one day.
• The Surva festival — the international masquerade games festival, held in late January.
• Zemen Monastery, with its unique frescoes — about half an hour away.