Knappa Gruaba

General information:

If you are interested in the mining activities at Bartholomaeberg, starting from the early Bronze-age about 1500 BC, you can get more detailed information at the Schruns museum of local history, the Mining Museum in Silbertal and from the audio-visual material of the „Miners Path“. Looking on the plate, you will notice that the pictured landscape has changed since 1978 – there are a lot more trees, new houses have been built and some fences have disappeared.

After you have gotten a first impression of the countryside, you will recognize the special shape of the landscape – it looks as if moles had been active. The depressions in the slope mark former adit entrances.  An adit is a nearly horizontal passage from the surface in a mine.

The hills with flattened tops are dirt pits of barren rock. Each of the pits can be correlated with one adit entrance. The landscape of dirt pits and adit entrances developed during the climax of the mining activities at Bartholomaeberg between 1000 and 1600 AD. The remarkable dirt pit to the east is the result of more recent mining activities between the years1934 and 1938. The corresponding adit entrance can now be visited in the „Schaubergwerk“. The last mining activities took place in 1969 when some ore prospecting was undertaken by an Irish mining company.

The hike continues through the forest to plate 24 which explains the orthogneisses of the Silvretta Crystalline. After crossing the road, the path leads to some excavated parts of a dirt pit, where iron carbonate and copper oxides can still be seen. The trail continues down to Bartholomaeberg, passing over 3 different levels of moraines.

Press 1 for detailed information about the mining activities in Barthololmaeberg,
Press 2 for information about the living and working conditions of the miners.