PSÓW — Shelves filled with books stand next to the big exhaust fan. “It is thanks to all of this that our Anna did not die,” says one miner, visibly touched.
In the middle of the book collection lies an extraction machine, and a crane still hovers above the heads of its visitors. The library is situated in the disused Anna Mine in Pszów, a town in Silesia, a southwestern region of Poland known for its historic ties to the mining industry. This is the only such place in the world.
Why put a library in a mine?
“For a long time, we thought about how to develop the Anna mine, which was closed because the coal deposits had run out,” says the mayor of Pszów, Piotr Kowol. “We knew one thing: We wanted to maintain the identity of this place and preserve this symbol of our mining heritage, which is worth showing off.”
The whole complex retains the authentic character of its historic past. The oldest building, with its 19th-century engine room, was saved. The same goes for the shaft’s tower standing next to it, which today serves as a great viewpoint from which visitors can admire the view over Pszów and the surrounding area.
But in the engine room building, a library as well as headquarters for the Social Welfare Center and the Education Institution Service Complex were added. In the room, the central point — as it had been for decades — is a huge extraction machine. Books, tables and chairs were placed around it.
“In fact, the machine itself — although it has of course been deactivated — is already a big attraction. You can see it from all sides, take a picture next to it,” says Dagmara Rak, director of the municipal library. It is here, in this exact spot that Industriada, a popular festival celebrating technical landmarks of Silesia region, takes place.
More than 31,000 books
After doing the place up, the brightened spacious room has now become home to a collection of more than 31,000 books. It took about a month to transfer them all from the building of Pszów’s Municipal Cultural Center to the mine-turned-library.
“Before moving, we asked readers to borrow as many books as possible. First because we wanted them to stock up as we didn’t really know how long this operation would take. And second, we wanted to have a little fewer books to be transported,” explains Dagmara Rak.
Anna feeds us, but this time it feeds us with culture.
The library, which opened to the public at the beginning of the month, has already begun to host special guests, like priest Jerzy Szymik, a poet born in Pszów. The priest dedicated a poem, “Epitaph for Anna,” to the mine, with the words: “Madonna listens with her usual smile in this place, a smile that says: You will not die under my cloak; neither you nor my Anna, you will see.”
Revitalizing the mine
“You know, it’s even more beautiful here than it used to be. Because what was the highest splendor of the mine? Buildings with workshops, some sheds — that was the need back then. Today, these two important elements, the shaft tower and the building of the extraction machine, look very impressive,” says Ernestyn Kubek, who worked in the Anna Mine for 30 years, starting as an intern and eventually rising through the ranks to become the director of the mine.
“It would be fantastic if the mine was still alive, bringing income, giving people good jobs, but unfortunately coal has run out for good and will not come back again,” adds Jerzy Polok, another retired director of the mine.
Revitalizing the place cost about 18 million złoty (i.e. a little more under 4,3 million euros). And this is just the beginning, as Pszów authorities are now planning on restoring another area — around the so-called Brave shaft. A nursery, but also an startup incubator, together with an educational and cultural center for children are set to operate in the building of the former supply.
“Our Anna has been around since 1832. Miners extracted about 200 million tons of coal from it. It’s like a pyramid spanning a kilometer to a kilometer across and 600 meters high,” a former miner describes to us. “And now Anna feeds us, but this time it feeds us with culture. We are pleased that it is teeming with life again, that people come here, drivers stop to see the tower, what is left of Anna,” he says.
In the Rybnik region, bringing new life to mining heritage sites has proven a successful way of revitalizing the culture of the region as a whole. This is also the case in the town of Rybnik-Nie, where the Ignacy Mine is today an appreciated cultural and social center, and in Jastrzębie-Zdrój, where the Moszczenica bath opened, also in a former mine.
