Historical coal-mining complex in Zabrze (eighteenth–twentieth centuries)

Zabrze, where eight hard-coal mines once operated, is a perfect place to present over two hundred years of coal mining history in Central Europe. The Coal Mining Museum in Zabrze protects and exhibits relics of the first mining walls, which were built in the eighteenth century.

It is a unique place where the layers of subsequent phases of transformation of the mining industry are clustered. All the components of the property co-create a unique narrative about the development of mining from the beginnings of industrial exploitation underground to the apogee of mass mining during the Cold War and under the conditions of an Eastern Bloc state, dominated by the totalitarian system of the second half of the twentieth century.

Salomon Isaac of Brabant, a salt merchant and mining activist working in Upper Silesia on the recommendation of a Prussian minister, Count Friedrich W. Reden, is considered to be the discoverer of the local deposits. In 1790, he discovered a one-metre-thick seam of coking coal near Paulsdorf, now part of Zabrze. This was enough for Count Reden to obtain a concession to build a state coal mine. In 1791, the first Prussian State coal mine in Upper Silesia was founded when shafts of the Royal Mine were sunk in Zabrze. From 1811, this was named ‘Queen Louise’ (originally Königin Luise, in Polish Królowa Luiza). The mine became a paragon of organization and cutting-edge technical equipment. In the years 1795 and 1814, increasingly advanced steam engines appeared, rail and horse-drawn transport was introduced, and black powder was used to crush rocks. In 1792, construction of the Klodnitz Canal began, connecting Zabrze with Koźle, and in 1799 the driving of the Main Key Hereditary Adit commenced to link the mine with the canal. Modelling the Main Key Hereditary Adit on its English counterparts, Reden wanted to use it to transport coal underground. The first navigable section of the adit, 2.5 km long, including the underground workings of the ‘Queen Louise’ mine, was put into operation in 1810. The adit was completed in 1863, when it reached Królewska Huta (then Königshütte, today Chorzów) and connected two royal state mines, Queen Louise and König (King). At that time, all the surrounding mines were already extracting coal below the level of the adit. Therefore, the Main Key Hereditary Adit was still used as a collector to drain pumped water from lower levels of mines, and the Zabrze section was used to transport coal only until the 1830s. In 1898, the ‘Queen Louise’ mine achieved extraction at the level of 3.3 million tons of coal (annually) and employed 8,500 workers. In 1855, the privately owned Guido mine was established; other mines followed. At the end of the nineteenth century, they had made Zabrze one of the most industrialized towns in Europe and, together with its neighbouring cities, formed one of the oldest and largest European conurbations. Industry generated the development of settlements, but also various forms of public utilities, from the development of green and recreational areas to facilities for worship, culture and those serving education and health. Pit villages were built – a particular type of settlements, cohesive, well- equipped in terms of technology (for its time), surrounded with greenery and a nearly complete infrastructure of public facilities. Zabrze was conferred city status on 1 October 1922. After the First World War, because of the plebiscite and three Polish uprisings, the Zabrze county was divided. Most of it stayed in the Upper Silesia Province, a subdivision of the German Reich. The novel state border went eastwards and southwards from Zabrze (along the Czarniawka River), leaving such city districts as Makoszowy, Kończyce and Pawłów on the Polish side. Workers would regularly cross the border to maintain the throughput of mines and factories. After 1945, the premises of the former Guido Mine passed along to the Makoszowy mine. In 1967, Guido was transferred to the Coal Industry Construction and Machinery Plant, which formed the M-300 Experimental Mine (with M standing for mechanization and 300 for 300 metres under). The Experimental Mine was dedicated to field-testing, prototyping and experimenting with machines and devices, primarily ones constructed by the Plant just mentioned. Many of them have stayed on in the mining workings. From 1 January 1975, the mine was under Gliwice’s Central Facility for Mining Machinery Design and Construction KOMAG. The Experimental Mine kept trying to do its research by excavating the remains of the coal seam 620. In 1979, the only Coal Mining Museum in Poland opened in Zabrze. In 1981, the mine and the museum entered into an agreement on making part of the workings on the 170 and 320 levels available to the public. Two years later, the first tourists could sightsee the Guido Underground Folk Museum, acting as a branch of the Coal Mining Museum but remaining in the M-300 structure. At first, only the level 320 was available, with the level 170 opening in 1990 after the necessary renovation. In 1995, the M-300 mine excavated its last tonne of coal, and shuttering the facility came under way. The decommissioning process for facilities and workings not covered by the conservator’s protection ended in December 2000 by dint of General Monument Conservator’s decision not to let the mine be dismantled further. In 2002, the filled-in Guido shaft was emptied, which made ventilating the workings possible and the mine thus independent from its Makoszowy neighbour. In 2007, a cultural institution Guido Historical Hard Coal Mine in Zabrze (ZKWK Guido) was set up after the Treasury waived M-300 to the Zabrze Municipality. The City and the Śląskie Province co-led the new institution. In mid-June 2007, the tourist trail at the 170-m level was launched, with the 320-m level ensuing in December 2008. In 2016, visitors gained access to part of the coal seam 620 M-300 Experimental Mine workings exploited in the 1990s.

In 1993, the Queen Louise Mining Folk Museum in the area of the Wilhelmina shaft was opened to the public. In 2009, there began works to unblock the Main Key Hereditary Adit, in disuse since the second half of the nineteenth century, finally opened to the public in 2018. ZKWK Guido had been merged with the Museum in 2013.

Not only does the Zabrze of mining narrate its own story; it also bears witness to the age of steam and electricity, to the Great Depression, to the Second World War and to the post-war decades as the city played the role of the poster child in the People’s Poland under the Eastern Bloc’s strategic mining system. But the story it tells us, first and foremost, is that of coal: execrated today yet essential for the industrial revolution.

The property nominated for the World Heritage List comprises historically linked complexes illustrating all stages of the advances in hard-coal mining in Upper Silesia:

1. Królowa Luiza (Queen Louise) mine – one of the two first and oldest (along with the King mine in Chorzów) hard-coal mines in the Silesia region; well preserved. The complex also comprises a model-and-education mining ensemble from the second part of the twentieth century (a training mine).

2. Main Key Hereditary Adit – the longest transport-and-drainage civil-engineering construction related to hard-coal mining on the continent that is preserved and available; bored since the

3. Guido mine – an instance of a private mine, founded in the mid-nineteenth century, which in the second half of the twentieth received a new lease of life as a training and experimental mine. At the same time, the most spacious tourist route with the best-preserved gear throughout European coal mining.

These are the only heritage ensembles of hard-coal workings in Poland, unique in Europe, that are so completely preserved, equipped, extensive, and publicly accessible, rounded off by a preserved machine park in working order.

The buffer zone of the property covers surface plots in accordance with the maps attached. Meanwhile, underground it is a mining operations zone, extending 135 metres below sea level and including the Północny (Northern) shaft of the Makoszowy Mine as well; the operation of the shaft is a prerequisite for the Guido mine’s safety (gas control, proper workings ventilation). The proposed boundaries of buffer zones underground are also indicated in the diagrams attached to the submission.

Detailed description*
The most valuable part of the Queen Louise Mine, located in the vicinity of the Wilhelmina shaft, consists of shallow (5–15 m in depth, 627 m in length) workings from the early nineteenth century, secondarily transformed in the 1930s and 1950s. Located on three levels of the underground, they include a pit of the Wilhelmina shaft, a complex of galleries of varied width, height and function (top gates, bottom gates, manways, pillar gates, runarounds, directional gates, cross-cuts, etc., secured by means of different supports), connected via sloped headings and sloping shafts, plus chambers, examples of longwalls for exploitation by means of cutters and roadheaders (the 1950s), the Budryk winze, as well as niches exposing the coal seam 509 (Reden). In the neighbourhood of the workings just mentioned, there is a complex of underground sections imitating that of a mine, 950 m in length, established in 1985 – a training mine. The underground parts are supplemented by numerous operational machines, devices and process lines from the postwar period, mainly preserved in situ, illustrating the technological process of extracting coal and transporting materials. The Wilhelmina shaft itself, i.e. a vertical heading with a depth of 42 m, drilled in 1815 for transportation and ventilation purposes, is an integral part of the mine; since

1819, it has linked the mine with the Main Key Hereditary Adit via the 510-coal seam (Pochhammer) with a length of 195 m. The Carnall shaft, 52 m deep, drilled in 1856 and later deepened to drain the workings and transport coal from levels 200, 250 and 521, is located about 400 m southeast of the Wilhelmina shaft. At a depth of 38 m, the pit is connected with the Main Key Hereditary Adit. Around the working, there is a historical complex of ground facilities, shaped in stages due to the opening of the Carnall and Schönaich shafts in the 1850s and subsequent modernizations of the mine in the second half of the nineteenth century and the first quarter of the twentieth century. The complex consists of the following buildings: a chain bathhouse and tally office; shafthead frame building of the Carnall shaft with preserved process bridges and shaft devices and a steel winding tower; engine house of the Carnall shaft with an authentic steam hoist machine from 1915; a compressor and 6 kV switchgear building from 1915; air condensation building; a storage building; the Prinz Schönaich shaft engine house from 1858. Along the section from the Carnall shaft to the outlet at Miarki Street, the Main Key Hereditary Adit is a 2,190-metre- long fragment of a historical transport-and-drainage canal, located at a depth between 38 m and 0 m, separated by a dam from the further section towards Chorzów (the remaining part of the adit, 12 km long, has remained obstructed and therefore is not protected through an entry into the register of historic monuments). The adit consists of, among others, the main gallery with passing loops for boats, and a diagonal gate, connected by eleven cuts drilled in coal deposits, plus short fragments of galleries in their extension (relics of hard-coal workings formed gradually together with drilling of the adit), a reconstructed loading port and a fragment of a blind adit Amalia. Adit corridors are secured by authentic (in around 80 per cent) stone supports with arched cross- sections, brick supports with parabolic crosssections, only partially reinforced by brick pommels, or cut directly into solid rock. The adit outlet to the restored port basin is framed by a replica of a stone portal. The Guido mine consists of the complex of ground facilities and workings at the levels of 150, 170 and 320 m. The ground complex includes two buildings functionally related to the operating Kolejowy (Railway) shaft: the shafthead building from the years 1929–31 with a steel winding tower of a trestle type, 26 m in height, and an engine house from 1927 with an operational electric hoist machine from 1931, a generator, a control board and a current converter (all from 1927). The underground parts of the mine are available through the Kolejowy (Railway) shaft drilled in the third quarter of the nineteenth century to the depth of 342 m (initially a downcast shaft) and the blind Guido winze from the fourth quarter of the nineteenth century, connecting the levels at 170 m and 320 m. The proper Guido shaft from the third quarter of the nineteenth century, located above (initially for transporting purposes, currently with a ventilation function), connects the ground level with the levels at 150 m and 170 m. The oldest underground workings, with a total length of 4,258 m – at the levels of 150, 170 and 320 m – are located between the above-mentioned shafts and to the south from the Guido shaft. The level 150, not available to visitors, consists of a group of chambers and ventilation slopes connected with the level 170 workings. Workings at the level of 170 (from the 1870s to 1880s) include authentic stables with a track bed of the horse rail, a complex of pits of the Guido shaft, and pits of the Kolejowy shaft with cart circuit – grouped around the main cross-cut running southwards from the vicinity of the pit of the Kolejowy shaft. The deepest underground parts, at the level of 320 m, consist of workings drilled in the late nineteenth century and in the postwar period. The former mainly consist of two parallel cross-cuts and accompanying chambers located at the main cross-cut of the pit of the Kolejowy shaft and the pit of the Guido winze – among others for pumps and compressors. The complex of postwar workings include: cross-galleries and chambers connecting the cross-cuts, a group of research chambers at the main cross-cut, as well as a group of experimental headings (i.e. various types of galleries, set-up entries, slopes) in the vicinity of two longwalls of coal seam 620. The underground structure of the mine is supplemented by, among others, former production equipment, such as a group of pumps, a two-cylinder compressor from 1914, and machines from technological lines of material mining and transportation.


*The description has been adapted from the zabytek.pl site: an official website of a state cultural institution answering to the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage that presents legally protected Polish monuments (https://zabytek.pl/en/obiekty/zabrze-zespol-zabytkowych-kopalni-wegla-kamiennego?setlang=1).

The historical coal-mining complex in Zabrze (eighteenth–twentieth centuries) is in Silesia, southern Poland. The nominated property comprises the most extensive and complete, renovated, restored and publicly accessible underground workings of a major hard-coal mine in Europe. The property includes extensive galleries and shafts that, together with directly connected surface technical infrastructure, provide testimony to more than two centuries of technological development and education in hard-coal mining, spanning continental Europe’s most important heavy industrial period. A substantial machine park is conserved underground and aboveground, much of it being in operational demonstration order.

Coal was the universal fuel of the industrial revolution, and the technical heritage of the technology to mine, transport and process coal and processing technology, is preserved in situ in the site at an unprecedented level. Development spans the period from the late eighteenth century to the middle of the twentieth century, a time when Europe perhaps made its greatest global contribution to advances in coal mining and transport and, above all, to the safety and welfare of miners. Under this latter theme, in addition to authentic areas that illustrate advances in structural and working techniques, and in ventilation and lighting, the site also includes historical underground facilities for teaching and equipment testing (with equipment still in working demonstration order), together with mine safety, fire and gas protection, and rescue training. Complementary historical surface installations complete the system of the production and processing of hard coal, again including significant in situ working equipment.

Criterion (ii): In its underground mine workings with their technical infrastructure and machinery equipment, the historical coal-mining complex in Zabrze (eighteenth–twentieth centuries) documents an exchange of technical prowess between hubs of mining development across Europe (influenced by overlaying layers of English, German, Polish and Soviet notions and experiences in one era after another). At the same time, Zabrze mines were a realm of experience and development that radiated onto other excavation centres of Silesia. Outstanding in its authenticity and documentary value, the underground workings ensemble has a scale neither preserved nor accessible elsewhere in Europe. Numerous artefacts not preserved anywhere but here bear witness to the introduction of new technologies, machines and systems, often of a field-testing and trailblazing nature demonstrating the experimental and innovative spirit of the place and the directions of changes happening in the era of big evolutionary leaps for machines and of streamlining the quality of their operation (safety) by people, often with further enhancements after the testing and lessons learned phase. The preserved pioneering solutions were thus not deployed as such in other similar mines but remain a testimony to the transition towards new optimal solutions, as they show the fast-moving dynamic of value exchange dynamic that would occur in the industrial revolution and later on.

Attributes: Main Key Hereditary Adit

Two flat-bottomed boats: original, nineteenth-century objects that document the history of underground water transport in hard-coal mining over the span of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.

Attributes: Queen Louise Mine

Mainway gallery in the 510 coal seam: a fragment of the original transport route from the nineteenth-century mine; the gallery cut into a coal seam.

Steam-powered mine hoist from 1915 with Koeppe friction plate winder: a component of the transport process for run-of-mine material and people.

Attributes: Guido Mine

Mine in aggregate: the preserved workings of the mine present an underground specimen of a hard-coal mine in its totality, with all sort of workings on display.

Kolejowy shaft hoist device: an instance of a complete, operational winding system from the first half of the twentieth century.

Level 170

Stables: original nineteenth-century amenities with preserved horse stalls; a witness to the old way the mine was run and to the development of intra-mine transport.

Sulzer pump: the only copy left nowadays of this pump type by the Sulzer manufacturer in hard- coal mining.

Level 320

Water bulkhead: made of cast steel. It showcases a single, water-resistant, watertight, two-door dam-like type and is remarkable, as commonly used bulkheads were brick-and-mortar or concrete.

Skarbek receptacle: a horizontal receptacle by the shaft; the only extant prototype device of its kind.

Criterion (iii): The historical coal-mining complex in Zabrze (eighteenth–twentieth centuries) stands as an exceptional testament to the cultural tradition that is industrial large-scale hard-coal extraction through mining from underground geological strata, which from the eighteenth to the twentieth century featured among the processes shaping up the technological standing and the community of industrial hubs.

In Zabrze, the process (once widespread all over the world, nowadays still existing in sundry regions of it) found its reflection across the entire historical span, from the earliest improvements in mining techniques to a twentieth-century training mine that served as a support base for the Central European excavation industry. The preservation of underground workings, and consequently a museum that has the trademarks of an active mining plant sets Zabrze apart from sites all across Europe in its scale (extent and depth of the accessible coal workings), its degree of authenticity and integrity (the preserved and used support systems in terms of engineering and machine park for ensuring mine safety), and the opportunity to present a full hard-coal technological line that remains exceptional among industrial and technical monuments. Maintained and accessible, the underground coal workings make Zabrze mining ensemble unique on a European scale among the monuments of technology.

Queen Louise Mine – the underground part: comprises two parts, the older dating to the 1800s and the newer put into service in 1985. These were refurbished to function as a training adit that a mining school found use for. Meanwhile, new workings with their preserved machine park depict technical innovation level in late-1970s and early-1980s mining.

Carnall zone – the way of the miner and coal: comprises bathhouse with tally office, engine house and winding tower, and auxiliary (ancillary) buildings such as compressor hall, switchgear house, mechanical workshop.

Operational mine works – with the stipulation that one of the executives must be an active specialist miner and that a fully staffed miners’ crew ensures the safety of visitors. The mining crew upholds the system of work and the principles that befit a mining enterprise, along with the ethos, customs, culture and vernacular.

Criterion (iv): The historical coal-mining complex in Zabrze (eighteenth–twentieth centuries) is an outstanding instance of a large-scale coal mine which illustrates the significance of European coal mining as the main fuel powering the industrial revolution, a major stage in human history. Underground mining was globally the predominant mode of coal production until superseded by opencast mining in the second half of the twentieth century. The site helps thoroughly comprehend the framework of underground coal extraction and transportation, by and large thanks to the original equipment in situ, fitted over the years to conduct industrial testing and training sessions, along with diverse aspects of miner wellbeing. Surface facilities supplement the two chief networks of underground workings in both Zabrze mines.

Attributes: Queen Louise Mine

An ensemble showcasing a variety of workings, mining gallery supports, methods of coal extraction, haulage and (vertical and horizontal) transport, ventilation, drainage.

Vertical transport – In the Carnall shaft headframe are preserved components of an extraction tub unloading station, which in conjunction with the operating Kolejowy shaft hoist device presents the gear of the auxiliary operations in a comprehensive way.

Transport-related technological line distinctive for a nineteenth-century hard-coal mine

Wilhelmina shaft from the early nineteenth-century: for transport and ventilation purposes. 510 coal seam Mainway from the 1820s: for transport and ventilation purposes.

Incline to the 80-m level driven from the coal seam 510 in the 1940s: an inclined shaft for transport and ventilation purposes; the necessary workings represents a typical layout done for exploiting the seam in the pillar-and-shortwall system typical of nineteenth-century mining extraction.

Attributes: Guido Mine

A system of workings made available on two levels (170 and 320) to broadly present the advances in coal extraction technology over the span of more than two centuries, representative for the whole coal industry in Europe.

Transport process for run-of-mine from longwall extraction at the hard-coal seam in the workings of the former M-300 experimental mine. The preserved workings serve to present the logistics along with the extant exploited workings. A prototype horizontal receptacle is located along the passage.

Backfilling process with pneumatic backfill in the workings of the former M-300 experimental mine. A one-of-a-kind, rarely seen pneumatic backfill process. The only extant technological line for the above technology can be seen in the Guido Mine.

Attributes: Main Key Hereditary Adit

Evolution of the mine drainage layout in the Zabrze section of the Main Key Hereditary Adit: the presentation of the gravity drainage system adjusting to the changing rock mass and coal extraction conditions.

Water-based coal transport in the Main Key Hereditary Adit workings: a complex transportation system from the early nineteenth century whose vital components are still preserved.

The site is emblematic of underground European hard-coal mining that made such a contribution to European coal mining. It is symptomatic, too, of Upper Silesia as a region which remained literally at the cutting edge of coal mining and miners’ safety beyond some of its neighbours that traditionally led the field. Poland further applies living cultural know-how and capacity in this field of expertise to protect its outstanding underground mining heritage as a notable contribution to the World Heritage List. The authentic content, preservation, and moreover conservation and public access provided by the historical coal-mining complex in Zabrze (eighteenth–twentieth centuries) are not encountered anywhere else, nor is it likely ever to be, due to technical and economic constraints which mean that such preservation will never occur elsewhere.

The historical coal-mining complex in Zabrze (eighteenth–twentieth centuries) represents the utmost degree of authenticity in the domain of preserving the uninterrupted functioning and historical traditions regarding hard-coal mining. Despite the musealization of facilities, human relation with the geological rock-mass circumstances necessitates keeping the mining works operational, which makes the ensemble unique on a continental scale. Well-documented mine histories, gathered by the Coal Mining Museum in Zabrze, correspond to the preservation state of legible excavation traces that are specific to various eras and technical systems of work. The hallmarks of authenticity can be discerned as regards:

- form and design – as expressed in the preserved relations between the surface and underground sections of the mines and the spatial interrelations of the city which grew out in association with burgeoning industry. A particular virtue of genuineness marks the preserved underground workings, whose extent and condition relates to the existence of functioning mining works, within which the extant chambers, workings, galleries and shafts find their use with the help of historical systems for vertical and horizontal communication, power sources, ventilation, drainage systems, and safety measures. The authenticity of the form and design of the extant workings and technology infrastructure is documented by the archived material that the Coal Mining Museum gathers.
- material and substance – exceptional in their genuineness, the extant and available coalfaces from the outset of Zabrze’s mining era with legible subsequent stages of exploitation across the nineteenth and twentieth centuries form a globally unique mining workings ensemble, where the raw material and the geological circumstances are accessible in situ in places where actual industrial exploitation was carried out. Materially, a very important facet of authenticity is the collected machine park of unique value, documenting the functioning of a training and experimental mine.

- use and function – the site in question is an ensemble that is industrial and protected as historical. Yet, the specific nature of the underground excavations determines the need to preserve the character of active mine workings, which adds unparalleled depth of functional authenticity to the whole complex.

- traditions, methods and management systems – the Coal Mining Museum’s management system reserves the function of one member of the Board, who must be an active specialist miner. This is required for safety reasons and to ensure that the mine is in operation. In this way, the tradition of the mining company is maintained and the obligations arising from the constant relationship of users with the element that is the mass of the rock formation in which the mines are located are presented. In the mining crew, the work system, hierarchy and operating principles characteristic of the mining company are maintained. The miners maintain both a professional ethos and a tradition in terms of custom and culture. This gives the museum mine a distinct social and functional authenticity.

- location and surroundings – the authenticity of the location is unquestionable, as the mine is inherently linked to the geological conditions through which it was able to come into existence. In terms of the surroundings, the most far-reaching changes are taking place (the onslaught of urbanization, the decommissioning of part of the above-ground mining infrastructure, which has lost its functionality, changes in the communication network and the uses of space). However, thanks to the spatial character of the mining infrastructure, part of the surroundings is developed as a functional extension of the complex, or complexes with complementary functions historically linked to the history of the Upper Silesian industry. In degraded areas, where the substance has been destroyed, revitalization processes subordinated to the protection of the exposure of valuable mining complexes are necessary.

- language and other forms of intangible heritage – intangible heritage is preserved to the highest degree of authenticity. It consists of the autonomous Upper Silesia culture, distinguished by its language/ dialect, customs, work ethos and ways of spending leisure time. These elements are documented by the Coal Mining Museum and are also immensely present among the miners.

- atmosphere and perception – no one who goes down to the lowest level of both mines will doubt the authenticity of the atmosphere and feelings which accompany the encounter with the underground workings of the mine. The relationship with the geological conditions and the historic work of the miners leaves the strongest impressions, where authenticity and the awareness of participating in something unique remains an obvious experience. This atmosphere is further enhanced by the preserved and working machinery. The experience of the mine atmosphere is enhanced immeasurably by the demonstration of the operation of the machinery (sound, vibration, the effects of working machines, ).

-other internal/external factors – the preserved relationship between the underground and above-ground parts of the complex, as well as the relationship with other parts of the city that developed thanks to mining and related industries functioning in symbiosis with it, is important for the feeling of authenticity of the complex. The preserved buildings, testimonies of the town-forming role of the mine, objects documenting the spiritual and social life of the miners play an important role as documents of the era and the specificity of the mining world.

The primary form of verification of the integrity of underground mine workings, is the ability to access and operate them. For the safety and longevity of the mine workings and their associated communication networks, the continuous functioning of the entire technical infrastructure of the mine, including drainage, ventilation, safety systems, and lighting, is essential. This integrity is ensured on an ongoing basis by the functioning within the Museum of the department representing the mining company. Thus, the technical structures, spaces, and crew determine the fundamental integrity of the site.

In the category of detailed analysis, the integrity of the property is also confirmed:

- it includes all elements necessary to express its Outstanding Universal Value;

The boundaries defined when granting the historical monument title, and likewise forming the basis for the World Heritage List nomination, encompass the totality of the available underground workings and communication infrastructure (shafts, vertical and horizontal galleries, including the Main Key Hereditary Adit, and drainage systems). The specificity of a multi-element mining ensemble and functional linkages with other components of the region’s industrial heritage would make it possible to combine further fields of interpretation and presentation as the protection is put in place. Still, the indicated area retains functional and topical integrity that makes it possible to present the Outstanding Universal Value of Zabrze hard-coal workings.

- it is of adequate size to ensure the complete representation of the features and processes which convey the property’s significance;

The import of the mining industry for the region’s economic development is so massive the question of size can be examined at different levels of detail. In broad overview, the whole region would need to be pointed out as the area where the industrial bustle left lasting marks. At the same time, the preserved underground workings in interrelation with the surface infrastructure provide a full representation of the features and processes that showcase the evolution of Upper Silesia mining techniques. They are most remarkable testament to industrial and technical heritage, while their completeness corresponds to the specificity expressed in the declaration of Outstanding Universal Value.

- it suffers from adverse effects of development and/or neglect.

Along with the coal extraction reduction and consequent cessation in Zabrze mines, destructive factors were aggravated and adverse impacts of developmental changes were thrown into relief. The tendency to pull down the facilities whose usefulness had dwindled did cause a number of localized damage in the pool of industrial and technical heritage. The process of musealization has halted some of these processes. Some losses already took on a historical significance, illustrating the deconstruction processes related to mining closure. In some areas, negative effects of chaotic investment and unmanaged public space are visible, which is a phenomenon common across post-industrial sites. On the premises under the Museum’s stewardship such situations do not occur. They do in the surroundings, and complex rehabilitation and revitalization activities should be spearheaded against them.

In general, the integrity of the historical coal-mining complex in Zabrze (eighteenth–twentieth centuries) is sufficient to present the Outstanding Universal Value of the property. The specificity of a post-industrial ensemble makes the interpretation of integrity expandable. It is an encouragement to put subsequent, satellite, mine-related industrial areas and facilities under protection mechanisms throughout the city and region. Concurrently, negative processes of ruderalization and degradation in the surroundings of industrial ensembles demand active protection policies and revitalization activities on a large spatial scale.