The Idrija mercury mine, five hundred years beneath the town

Anthony’s Main Road, inside the mine

The tour enters through Anthony’s Main Road, dug in 1500 in the middle of the old town of Idrija. CUDHg Idrija presents it as the oldest preserved mine entrance in Europe. A guide takes you down into the underground world of the second largest mercury mine on earth, through hidden tunnels with cinnabar ore and glittering drops of mercury, and you visit a unique underground chapel. The centre speaks of 240 million years of geological history in the rock. Local lore places Perkmandlc, the roguish mine elf, somewhere down there too.

It’s around 13 °C inside all year, so everyone is given overalls and a helmet, and suitable footwear is a good idea. Children under three and dogs can’t go in. Tours take an hour and a half, and there are several types of tour for individuals, families, groups and school parties.

The smelting plant and mercury exhibition

The old smelting plant buildings hold the second part of the visit. With experiments, animations, videos and devices, it explains mercury, the only metal that is liquid at room temperature, and its uses in science, technology, industry, medicine and everyday life, from prehistory to today. The Idrija tourist board notes that over five centuries the mine’s furnaces filled more than three million steel flasks with mercury, and the smelter preserves a rotary furnace for mercury that CUDHg calls the largest in the world. It takes an hour and a quarter, is barrier-free, has no age limit and allows dogs.

Prices, times and planning your visit

The combined ticket for Anthony’s Main Road and the smelting plant comes with a discount, at €17 from November to March and €20 in spring and autumn; guided tour times are published on the centre’s website. You’ll find the entrance right in the old town, a good hour’s drive from Ljubljana, Nova Gorica and Škofja Loka. Slovenia’s other UNESCO sites are gathered in the UNESCO World Heritage Sites in Slovenia guide.

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More mining heritage in Idrija

CUDHg Idrija also looks after the Idrija Compressor Station and the klavže dams, and in town the Municipal Museum runs Gewerkenegg Castle, the kamšt and the miner’s house, which round off the day well and help make sense of what you saw underground. The Rake channel, which once drove the mine’s machinery, is now a flat footpath to the Wild Lake (Divje jezero). If you carry on north, Cerkno shares its museum with Idrija, and the two towns make a natural pairing for a couple of days in the hills.

If you are short on time, see the best tours in Idrija mercury mine and pick one that fits your day.

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