Důl Václav Mine

The Václav Mine was located in Poruba near Orlová, in the northern part of the Petřvald sub-basin, south of the road to Rychvald. This deep black coal mine represents an important chapter in the industrial history of Silesia.

The history of the mine is linked to the expansion of a large Austrian industrial conglomerate. In 1881 the Austrian Alpine Montan Company (Oesterreichische Alpine Montangesellschaft, ÖAMG) was founded on the initiative of the French bank Union Générale and the Austrian Länderbank. Over time it brought together dozens of mining and ironworks companies, mainly in Austria and Styria, and was one of the largest business entities of the Habsburg monarchy. It included the Inn main mining company (Innské hlavní těžířstvo), which held mining properties in Poruba.

In 1899 Mine No. I was founded, named after the order in which the mining operations were established. Its name gradually settled as Alpine (Alpineschacht), colloquially Alpinka or Václavka. The mining field had two shafts: the winding shaft, sunk in 1899 to 340 metres at the level of the third floor, and ventilation shaft No. 2, sunk in 1903, also to the third floor. In 1899 the field covered 180.7 hectares; by 1927 it had grown to 473.7 hectares.

Political changes fundamentally changed the ownership. In 1926 the Czechoslovak state bought the property, and a year later the mine was renamed Václav. In the following decade the owner changed several times: in 1938 it passed to Československá zbrojovka a.s., in 1942 to the Emperor Ferdinand Northern Railway. After the Second World War, from 1 January 1946, the mine became part of the national enterprise Ostrava-Karviná Mines.

Under the new owner a major reconstruction took place. The plan to merge with the neighbouring Evžen Mine and to shift production to Václav had been prepared during the war. Deepening of the Václav 1 winding shaft began in 1945 but remained unfinished just above the planned level of the seventh floor. The two mines were merged only in 1955, via a cross-cut. The name Czechoslovak Pioneer (Československý pionýr), used for the Evžen Mine since 1952, then passed to both mines, with Václav becoming plant No. 2.

The technical equipment reflected the progress of industrial technology. In 1902 the winding shaft was fitted with a Gutehoffnungshütte steam winding engine (built in 1901 by Andritz in Vienna). The ventilation shaft had a Geissler electric fan with a capacity of 300 m³/min (built in 1901 by Breitfeld Daněk, Prague). The power station was equipped with two 650 kW steam turbines (one from the First Brno Engineering Company from 1908, the other from Bergmann of Berlin from 1912). The boiler house originally had four Garbe boilers; figures from 1938 list different boilers, which produced steam at 350 °C and 15 atm.

In 1967 coal mining was ended at short notice. The headframe was demolished and the technical equipment removed. The shafts were filled in in 1973. What remains of the mine site is its administrative building, registered as a cultural monument of the Czech Republic and recalling the era of industrial activity in the region. According to the town’s website, the boiler house and engine house were also still standing in 2011, then in a dilapidated state; their heritage protection was revoked in 2010.