The dilapidated Gabriel shaft will become an attractive park for half a billion

“POHO Park Gabriela will create a place in Karvinska where people will go for entertainment and the history of mining. We will build a mountain landscape center there, which will be a starting point and a crossroads of paths through the mountain landscape,” explained Deputy Governor Jakub Unucka (ODS), adding that a visitor, cultural and technological center with an exhibition about the hard life of miners will be created on the site of a cultural monument that has been deteriorating for the past 20 years and their families.

“We have several mining museums in the country, but our exhibition will be different. It will not only show old shovels, spatulas and leather aprons, it will tell human stories, recall the history of this place and show respect for the victims and the lives of the people who were affected so much by mining,” he pointed out and revealed that the exhibition will be located in the basement of the machine room where the mining machines were and related operation technologies.

The former shaft will also offer spaces for conferences, workshops, festivals and other events, footpaths, cycle paths and rest areas will be created in the area. And a via ferrata trail to the top of one of the mining towers is supposed to be a tourist attraction.

The annual costs of POHO Park Gabriela are estimated at 12 million crowns, which will be covered by the region and contributed to by the city of Karviná. The Pohopark association, whose members are the Moravian-Silesian Region, the regional company MSID, Karviná and the Dokořán association, will take care of the operation of the area.

According to MSID vice-chairman Peter Birklen, project documentation for the reconstruction of the mine is currently being processed. It should be ready by the end of the year.

“We are awaiting the start of a rescue archaeological survey, the construction itself should begin at the turn of 2025 and 2026, the first visitors will be welcomed by POHO Park Gabriela in the second half of 2027,” he outlined, adding that as a member of the team working on the preparation of the exposition on the life of miners and coal mining, is also Karin Lednická, author of the Leaning Church trilogy.

Mining towers are witnesses of mining history, they should be preserved

Economy