Anthony Mine Shaft

Top choice in The Julian Alps

LoginSave

The mine is a ‘living museum’, allowing you to get a feel for the working conditions of mercury miners in Idrija. The entrance is the Anthony Shaft, built in 1500, which led to the first mine: 1.5km long, 600m wide and 400m deep. The tour covers about 1200m and lasts 1½ hours; it begins in the ‘call room’ of an 18th-century building where miners were selected each morning and assigned their duties.

You'll be supplied overcoats and helmets; the temperature in the mine is around 13°C (55°F). There are also exhibitions in the old smelting plant.

For more on the town's mercury heritage, pick up the free and informative Idrija: A Heritage of Mercury from the TIC.

Lonely Planet's must-see attractions

  • Postojna Cave

    Postojna Cave

    17.35 MILES

    The jaw-dropping Postojna Cave system, a series of caverns, halls and passages some 24km long and two million years old, was hollowed out by the Pivka…

  • Slovenia, Karst Region, Skocjan, View of Skocjan Caves Park

    Škocjan Caves

    23.28 MILES

    Touring the huge, spectacular subterranean chambers of the 6km-long Škocjan Caves is a must. This remarkable cave system was carved out by the Reka River,…

  • Panorama of the Slovenian capital Ljubljana at sunset.; Shutterstock ID 186963659; Your name (First / Last): Josh Vogel; Project no. or GL code: 56530; Network activity no. or Cost Centre: Online-Design; Product or Project: 65050/7529/Josh Vogel/LP.com Destination Galleries

    Ljubljana Castle

    23.63 MILES

    Crowning a 375m-high hill east of the Old Town, this castle is an architectural mishmash, with most of it dating from the early 16th century when it was…

  • Predjama castle

    Predjama Castle

    13.66 MILES

    Predjama Castle, 9km from Postojna, is one of Europe's most dramatic castles. It teaches a clear lesson: if you want to build an impregnable fortification…

  • White Lipizzan Horses running; Shutterstock ID 342228359; Your name (First / Last): Anna Tyler; GL account no.: 65050; Netsuite department name: Online Editorial; Full Product or Project name including edition: destination-image-southern-europe

    Lipica Stud Farm

    23.93 MILES

    The stud farm can be visited on very popular, 50-minute guided tours. The interesting, informative tours are available in a number of languages; a tour…

  • Vintgar gorge and wooden path,Bled,Slovenia

    Vintgar Gorge

    27.9 MILES

    One of the easiest and most satisfying half-day trips from Bled is to Vintgar Gorge, some 4km to the northwest of Bled village. The highlight is a 1600m…

  • Loka Museum

    Loka Museum

    17.75 MILES

    The town's premier sight is the commanding Loka castle, overlooking the settlement from a grassy hill west of Mestni trg. It dates from the 13th century…

  • Miramare castle, Trieste, Italy.

    Castello di Miramare

    25.4 MILES

    Sitting on a rocky outcrop 7km from Trieste, Castello di Miramare is the city's elegiac bookend, the fanciful neo-Gothic home of the hapless Archduke…

View more attractions

Nearby The Julian Alps attractions

1. Idrija Lace School

0.13 MILES

The Idrija Lace School was founded in 1876 (it's the biggest and oldest lace school in the world), and continues to offer lace-making skills to younger…

2. Municipal Museum

0.21 MILES

This award-winning museum is housed in the hilltop Gewerkenegg Castle. The excellent collections, which deal with mercury, lace and local history (but,…

3. Gewerkenegg Castle

0.21 MILES

The castle was built in the 1520s to serve as the administrative headquarters of the Idrija mine. This award-winning Municipal Museum is housed inside.

4. Miner’s House

0.22 MILES

Laid out across the slopes encircling the valley are Idrija’s distinctive miners’ houses. Large wooden A-frames with cladding and dozens of windows, they…

5. Kamšt

0.47 MILES

One of the most interesting examples of mining technology that still exists is the Kamšt, a 13.6m waterwheel made of wood that was used to pump the water…

6. Wild Lake

1.23 MILES

A 3km trail called Pot ob Rakah follows the Idrijca River Canal from the Kamšt (an 18th-century waterwheel used by the mines) to Wild Lake, a tiny,…

7. NašRaj

6.36 MILES

Describing this place as a farm just doesn't do it justice. This ecological farm, for want of a better word, sits almost 1000m above sea level around 20km…

8. Cerkno Museum

9.03 MILES

The town's museum is not far southwest of Glavni trg. Its main displays trace the development of the region from earliest times to the modern period, but…

  • placement: superzone
  • path: Destinations/POIs/superzone
  • possible size: [970, 250], [970, 90], [728, 90], [1, 1],
  • targeting: 
    {
  "url": "slovenia/idrija/attractions/anthony-mine-shaft/a/poi-sig/490266/360710",
  "destination": "The-Julian-Alps",
  "continent": "Europe",
  "country": "Slovenia",
  "region": "The-Julian-Alps",
  "position": "superzone"
}