Rabensteiner Stollen, Mining museum in Harztor, Germany

Rabensteiner Stollen is a mining museum in Harztor, Germany, built inside actual former mine tunnels with exhibitions covering extraction techniques and local minerals. The site includes walkable underground passages and original equipment still in place along the route.

Coal was found here around Easter 1737 by a 68-year-old miner from Dambach and his son, about 20 m above today's adit mouth; mining began on 27 May 1737 but stopped on 16 August when the miners were arrested in a dispute over mining rights. A 1747 treaty between the counts of Stolberg-Wernigerode and the Stift Ilfeld settled joint operation, and work resumed in 1750. After further periods from 1831 and 1861, when the deeper Otto-Stollen was driven from the Beretal, five mines were consolidated as Rabenstein in 1877; cheaper Silesian and Ruhr coal ended output in 1880. A last attempt by the Wentzelzeche union, founded 5 October 1921, yielded a total of 11 tonnes before closing in March 1924. The mine has been open to visitors since 1981.

The name Rabensteiner Stollen comes from the Rabenklippe cliff on the Sandlünz slope where the adit was driven. Visitors see the original workplaces, some only 60 cm high, and outside a large collection of tools from different periods plus a heap of coal and fossils that can be searched by hand.

The underground sections stay at about 8 degrees Celsius (46 degrees Fahrenheit) year-round, so bringing a warm layer is a good idea regardless of the season. Visits are done through guided tours, which cover the full route through the tunnels.

The coal seam here was split into three banks: Bankkohle 40–60 cm, Mittelkohle 20–70 cm and Dachkohle 20–50 cm, and in places a fossil root soil lies beneath it. The seams, about 295 million years old, were later baked by Permian volcanism into anthracite and lean coal.