Zloty Stoke

In 1249, the Cistercians settled in the Kamen-Zombkovitsky monastery near the future Zloty Stok and began searching for local ores. Already in 1273 they received a mountain privilege from the Wroclaw and Krakow Prince Heinrich Probus for exploration and development of minerals.

From the XIV century, periods of rapid ups and downs of local gold mining begin, which is associated with a different content of gold in ore rocks (the rich contained about 14 g / t). Although the annual average gold production for the fourteenth and sixteenth centuries was about 140 kg (approximately 10% of the European total), there were some periods when several times more was mined here, which made these mines famous throughout Europe. Agricola wrote in the middle of the sixteenth century: "Gold is found in several places ... However, the gold mine in Reichenstein thrives more than others . " Gold coins of 10 ducats, which had a wide international circulation, were minted in the city. In 1483, the zloty Zloty Stok was granted the status of a mountain city, and Kutnogorsk mountain rights were granted to miners.

Over the years of operation, 16 tons of gold and about 125 tons of arsenic were mined. The total length of the mine workings, located on 21 horizons, is about 200 km (excluding trunks and pits). A significant amount of original mine workings has been preserved at the mine, which made it possible to create a gold mine museum here. The most ancient development of the underground route is the Knyazhaya adit, the construction of which was begun in 1501.

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