Anthony Mine Shaft

The Anthony Mine Shaft, a 'living museum' in the Šelštev building south of Trg Svetega Ahacija, allows you to get a feeling for the working conditions of mercury miners in Idrija.

The tour, lasting about 1¼ hours, begins in the 'call room' of an 18th-century building where miners were selected each morning and assigned their duties by the obergutman (supervisor). There's an excellent 20-minute video in several languages (including English) describing the history of Idrija and the mine.

Before entering the shaft, which was sunk in 1500 and led to the first mine measuring 1.5km long, 600m wide and 400m deep, you must don green overcoats and helmets with the miners' insignia and wish each other 'Srečno!' (Good luck!), the traditional miners' farewell.

As you follow the circular tour, you'll see samples of live mercury on the walls that the miners painstakingly scraped to a depth of about 5cm, as well as some cinnabar ore. The 18th-century Chapel of the Holy Trinity (Cerkev Sv Trojice) in the shaft contains statues of St Barbara, the patroness of miners, and St Ahacius, on whose feast day (22 June) rich deposits of cinnabar were discovered.