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Anthony's shaft - A Tourist Mine
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 Anthony’s Shaft is the oldest part of the Idrija Mine and belongs to
the oldest preserved entrances into any mine throughout the world. As
such it also serves as a living contact with the town’s mining (“knap”)
past. It was dug up in the distant year of 1500, i.e. in the pioneering
period of the quest for cinnabar ore, and only a decade after the
discovery of autochthonous mercury.
 For almost half a
millennium, miners descended into the pit and returned exhausted from
their daily labour precisely along this 300-meter long shaft. In the
mid 18th century, the chapel of the Holy Trinity was built at the end
of the shaft. It housed a relief depicting three persons of the Holy
Trinity and two statues of their patrons – Saint Acacius and St.
Barbara. From the Chapel, where miners would usually offer their
prayers and asked for successful work and a safe return, they descended
into Attems’s Shaft and walked down some 1000 steps until reaching a
depth of 200 metres. Nowadays only 116 steps remain fit to be walked
upon.
In
the 18th century, an entrance building was constructed in front of the
shaft and called Šelštev (from German Geselstube or Stelstube), which
served as a register office. In the morning hours, the miners gathered
within the office, poured oil in their lamps, took their register
numbers, and, above all, received notification on arrangement and
allocation of working tasks. In those times “knocking on the rail” from
the top (attics) of the recently renovated building summoned workers to
their daily “lecture”. It was in Šelštev, which in its upper premises
provided a place for provisional ambulances, working cabinets, and
lodgings for mine employees, that the famous engineer and constructor
Stanko Bloudek was born on February 1890.
 With the
refurbishment of Šelštev an Anthony’s Shaft, on 22 June 1994, i.e. on
Saint Acacius’s day, the oldest part of the mine was opened to the
public. At present it is arranged for tourist visits and enables guests
to directly experience the mine’s ambience. The exploration of the
shaft starts off in the reconstructed register office, where an
attractive multimedia presentation – in several languages – is shown.
Subsequent to this, the visitors, under professional guidance and
clothed in special green-black jackets and equipped with helmets,
descend into the mysterious underworld of miners. The path through the
illuminated shafts leads them to the first drops of liquid mercury that
is trickling, tear-like, from the black slate.
 The
walk past the extraordinary cave chapel is followed by a descent into
deeper parts of the pit all the way to the Acacius horizon, which lies
some 100 m below the earth’s surface. During their stroll, visitors get
familiar with the miner’s working tasks, and by the end take a rest at
the miners’ bench. In the magic underworld they also encounter none
other than the mythological cave dwarf, “Berkmandelc” (locals in Idrija
prefer to call him Prekmandlc), who turns out to be quite a tame
creature. The adventure ends with a return upwards along the steps of
Attem’s shaft.
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; "Antonijev rov")
Anthony’s Shaft is the oldest part of the Idrija Mine and belongs to
the oldest preserved entrances into any mine throughout the world. As
such it also serves as a living contact with the town’s mining (“knap”)
past. It was dug up in the distant year of 1500, i.e. in the pioneering
period of the quest for cinnabar ore, and only a decade after the
discovery of autochthonous mercury. ; "Antonijev rov")
For almost half a
millennium, miners descended into the pit and returned exhausted from
their daily labour precisely along this 300-meter long shaft. In the
mid 18th century, the chapel of the Holy Trinity was built at the end
of the shaft. It housed a relief depicting three persons of the Holy
Trinity and two statues of their patrons – Saint Acacius and St.
Barbara. From the Chapel, where miners would usually offer their
prayers and asked for successful work and a safe return, they descended
into Attems’s Shaft and walked down some 1000 steps until reaching a
depth of 200 metres. Nowadays only 116 steps remain fit to be walked
upon. ; "Antonijev rov")
With the
refurbishment of Šelštev an Anthony’s Shaft, on 22 June 1994, i.e. on
Saint Acacius’s day, the oldest part of the mine was opened to the
public. At present it is arranged for tourist visits and enables guests
to directly experience the mine’s ambience. The exploration of the
shaft starts off in the reconstructed register office, where an
attractive multimedia presentation – in several languages – is shown.
Subsequent to this, the visitors, under professional guidance and
clothed in special green-black jackets and equipped with helmets,
descend into the mysterious underworld of miners. The path through the
illuminated shafts leads them to the first drops of liquid mercury that
is trickling, tear-like, from the black slate. ; "Antonijev rov")
The
walk past the extraordinary cave chapel is followed by a descent into
deeper parts of the pit all the way to the Acacius horizon, which lies
some 100 m below the earth’s surface. During their stroll, visitors get
familiar with the miner’s working tasks, and by the end take a rest at
the miners’ bench. In the magic underworld they also encounter none
other than the mythological cave dwarf, “Berkmandelc” (locals in Idrija
prefer to call him Prekmandlc), who turns out to be quite a tame
creature. The adventure ends with a return upwards along the steps of
Attem’s shaft.