Mining museum of Pernik, Mining museum in Pernik, Bulgaria

The Mining museum of Pernik occupies two preserved galleries of the former "Stari Rudnitsi" mine, totalling 630 metres in length, where brown coal was extracted from 1891 to 1966. About 30 exhibitions display original equipment for coal extraction, support, lighting and transport, including locomotives and passenger wagons. The collection holds 50,000 items, the largest being a German Siemens locomotive from 1925.

Coal extraction began at this location in 1891, making it one of Bulgaria's earliest mining operations in the modern era. The mine closed after more than 70 years of production and was later opened to visitors as a museum in the 1980s.

The museum takes its setting from the first Bulgarian mine, "Stari Rudnitsi", opened in 1891, and was modelled on Poland's Wieliczka salt mine. Since 2012 an iconostasis of St. Ivan Rilski, patron saint of miners, stands in the galleries. At the entrance, miners touched a petrified tree over 50 million years old, called the "tree of happiness".

Visitors should wear sturdy shoes and bring warm clothes, as the underground space stays cool throughout the year. The pathways through the tunnels are accessible but involve walking on uneven ground and passing through narrow sections.

The preserved tunnels hold more than just equipment - visitors can see marks left by tools, scratches on walls, and old writings from miners who worked here. These small traces tell the story of people spending decades working deep underground in harsh conditions.