Goslar and the Rammelsberg Mine

UNESCO World Heritage Site: Mines Of Rammelsberg, Historic Town Of Goslar And Upper Harz Water Management System (1992, Extended 2010); A Thousand Years Of Ore Mining Beside An Intact Timber Framed Town · Goslar, Lower Saxony

Goslar lies at the northern foot of the Harz, and the hill above it was mined for close to a thousand years until the Rammelsberg shut in 1988. The two halves were inscribed together in 1992, and the Upper Harz water management system of ponds, ditches and tunnels that once powered the mines was added in 2010. The mine is now a museum you go into rather than look at: a small train takes you underground to the old galleries, where the temperature holds at roughly 12 C whatever the season, and the surface buildings of the last working plant are left standing as they were. The town below kept around 1,500 timber-framed houses, an eleventh-century imperial hall, and a market square whose glockenspiel plays out the mining story a few times a day. It is a quiet, well-kept place rather than a dramatic one, and it suits anyone interested in how an industry and a town shaped each other. Hanover is about an hour and a quarter away by train with a change, Brunswick closer; most people come for a single day.

Goslar old town and the Rammelsberg mine on the hill above it, northern Harz, Goslar, Lower Saxony, Germany

The old town is open ground at any hour and the market square is quietest early. The Rammelsberg museum opens daily, and the underground tours run to a fixed timetable with the last departures well before closing, so a late arrival can mean the museum without the mine - confirm current times. The imperial hall and the town museums keep shorter winter hours and some close one weekday, as most German municipal museums do. The glockenspiel on the market square sounds only a few times a day; ask at the tourist office rather than waiting on the hour.

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