Located on Kamienna Street, it is the second deepest quarry in the world (120 m deep, 650 m long, 300 m wide). Although the mining site is privately owned, it can be visited once a year - on the feast day of the patron saint of Strzelin, St. Michael the Archangel, which falls in September.
The passage is safe because the route is protected by barriers. However, only people with strong nerves can look down to the bottom of the quarry. The view is breathtaking. The guided tour lasts one hour.
Granite has been mined in Strzelin since the Middle Ages, at least since the 13th century, and on an industrial scale since the 19th century. Granite from Strzelin was used, among other things, in the construction of the Palace of Culture and Science in Warsaw, the Nike monuments in Warsaw, the monuments to the victims of fascism in Auschwitz and Treblinka, as well as the Jagiellonian Library in Krakow, the Reichstag in Berlin, and the reconstruction of the Poniatowski Bridge in Warsaw.
Strzeliń granite is a fine-grained granite, currently mined in quantities of approximately 1,300,000 tons per year. Among other things, it is used to produce construction aggregates (gravel, crushed stone, wedges) used in the production of concrete. The scale of mining is so large that a railway siding has been built to the quarry, where the extracted material is loaded directly into wagons.
The Strzelin region is rich not only in granite, but also in other rocks, such as quartzite slate (Jegłowa, Kuropatnik, Strużyna, the slopes of Gromnik), basalt (Górka Sobocka, Kowalskie), crystalline limestone (around Przeworno and Gębczyce), as well as kaolin, graphite, and marble. Some pits were abandoned and flooded long ago. In the Strzelin area, stone was and is commonly used for the construction of churches, castles, houses, fences, and farm buildings, among other things.
The passage is safe because the route is protected by barriers. However, only people with strong nerves can look down to the bottom of the quarry. The view is breathtaking. The guided tour lasts one hour.
Granite has been mined in Strzelin since the Middle Ages, at least since the 13th century, and on an industrial scale since the 19th century. Granite from Strzelin was used, among other things, in the construction of the Palace of Culture and Science in Warsaw, the Nike monuments in Warsaw, the monuments to the victims of fascism in Auschwitz and Treblinka, as well as the Jagiellonian Library in Krakow, the Reichstag in Berlin, and the reconstruction of the Poniatowski Bridge in Warsaw.
Strzeliń granite is a fine-grained granite, currently mined in quantities of approximately 1,300,000 tons per year. Among other things, it is used to produce construction aggregates (gravel, crushed stone, wedges) used in the production of concrete. The scale of mining is so large that a railway siding has been built to the quarry, where the extracted material is loaded directly into wagons.
The Strzelin region is rich not only in granite, but also in other rocks, such as quartzite slate (Jegłowa, Kuropatnik, Strużyna, the slopes of Gromnik), basalt (Górka Sobocka, Kowalskie), crystalline limestone (around Przeworno and Gębczyce), as well as kaolin, graphite, and marble. Some pits were abandoned and flooded long ago. In the Strzelin area, stone was and is commonly used for the construction of churches, castles, houses, fences, and farm buildings, among other things.
