Mining Museum - Location Monteneve

In the mining area of Monteneve there's a mountain hut and the former miners' settlement of San Martino. Nowadays it houses the Location Monteneve - "Standort Schneeberg" in German, "Sede di Monteneve" in Italian -, one of the four locations of the South Tyrol Museum of Mining. Already in the 13th century there was a mining industry (certificate by the notary Jacob Haas at Bolzano on the 24th December 1237), mentioning the "good silver of Monteneve". The silver, lead and zinc mine, more precisely a series of small mines and galleries on the mountain ridge between the Val Passiria and the Val Ridanna valleys, was in operation for 800 years, until 1985.

Nowadays, the showroom exhibits a variety of interesting photos, documents as well as ancient items. And afterwards you can proceed into the highest located mine of Europe, open to the public since 1991. By booking the small guided tour "Paradise" (2 hours), you do a guided visit across the miners' settlement and to the mine in the so-called "Kingdom of Heaven" (Himmelreich). If you book the large guided tour "Monteneve total" (10 hours), you can experience the entire area of the mine and go about 3.5 km into the historic Karlstollen tunnel by mine train. Next to the showroom there's also the Rif. Monteneve mountain hut, offering accommodation.

And how to reach the Location Monteneve? It is accessibly only by foot. In the Val Passiria valley, you can start at the Monteneve Bridge, located along the Passo del Rombo mountain road (parking space available). The trails no. 31 and 29 take you in about 2 hours up to more than 2,300 m a.s.l. Alternatively, from the upper Valle Isarco valley a driveway and an educational trail start at the Ridanna Mine in Masseria (4 hours). From July until mid-October, however, you can take the Museum Shuttle Bus from Masseria to the Poschhaus, saving half of the walking time.