Claustrophobic adventures ...

... interrupted

Quote of the week

“We are more often frightened than hurt; and we suffer more from imagination than from reality.”
— Seneca

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Hello,

This week has been very warm here in Sweden and I have enjoyed some early evening swims. Wonderfully refreshing. Otherwise it has been a quiet week and I have been fixing a few things at home and reading. Our balcony sofa is a sleeping pill, and I often falling into a siesta, over a book, in the afternoon.

I happened to see some photos from recently and remembered a not so relaxing time.

The Silver Mine in Schwaz, Austria

The Schwaz silver mine is sometimes referred to as “Mother of all mines”, and was the mining centre of Europe in the Middle Ages. Five hundred years ago, up to 10,000 miners worked here, looking for silver and copper, which made this small town one of the biggest mining communities in the world. There are around 300 kilometer of tunnels and shafts in the mountain. The whole world was dependent on the mine, since 85% of all silver in the world came from here. The families that traded silver became so influential that they even dictated Europe’s politics.

Martin and I had long talked about a visit to here, and a sunny day in April we were finally there. We had to take on some water protecting clothes and a helmet. My only other experience of a mine is of the Wieliczka Salt Mine outside Krakow. I visited the mine in 1987, and I remember we went down into the mine with a big, wooden elevator, slowly arriving in a huge cave hall. When we sat down on the small, open train to go 800 meters into the mountain in Schwaz, I was still visualising the other visit, as the train slowly started rolling inside the mountain.

This is before the train started, and when I still had a smile on my face. It faded very quickly

It did not take long before I started to slowly panic. I am claustrophobic, and just realising that the space on either side of the train was so small, people were in front of and behind me, and we were riding 800 meters straight into the mountain, made me start shaking. I closed my eyes and tried to convince myself that I was sitting on a train in Sweden, going through a beautiful forest and fields in the summer. It did not help much, but I managed to sit still until we reached the ‘end station’. That cave was a little bit bigger and I could calm down a little bit.

However, the guide pointed to a small tunnel and happily said that here and there in the tunnel the height was only 1.50 m (4.9 feet) since people were not so tall in those days. I must admit I started crying and shaking and told Martin I could not go in. Luckily, for me, the earlier group was on their way back, so I quickly jumped on the train and told that guide that I needed to go back out. Don’t worry she said, in 8 minutes you are out again. It was long 8 minutes, but I could feel the fresh air from outside coming through the tunnel, I closed my eyes and managed to keep myself composed for the rest of the trip.

Powerful people

Legend has it that Schwaz became a mining town in 1409, although copper ore was mined here already in pre-historic times. The business made several people rich, and one of them was the Fugger family. They bought a trading company already in 1487. One of the most famous and successful family member was Jakob Fugger, “the Rich”. He bought a firm which went into bankruptcy in 1522. There are still houses and monuments which belonged to the Fuggers in Schwas today. They also had offices in Innsbruck and Hall in the 16th century. There is also an interesting museum in Hall, Tirol, highlighting this area.

The Thaler

Silver was an important commodity for coins. It was called thaler in the Holy Roman Empire and the Habsburg monarchy from the 16th century. Such a coin had a diameter of about 40mm (1,5 in) and weights about 25-30 grams (ca 1 ounce). This type of coin was minted until the 20th century: the Mexican peso until 1914, the five Swiss franc coin until 1928, the US silver dollar until 1935, and the Austrian Maria Theresa thaler. The derivative name in English, dollar, survives in several modern currencies.

In Sweden we had the daler. In Norway the speciedaler. Later on it became the Swedish riksdaler (1604) and the Danish Rigsdaler (1625). It was later converted into the modern currency of daler. During the 19th century the daler was replaced by the krona/krone in the Scandinavian countries.

The silver mine’s importance in Schwaz was diminished with the discovery of silver in the new world, and the importance of the place diminished. Still, it is a beautiful story, but probably, as always based on the hard work of poor people.

This week

I went with friends to Roskilde for a day, but more about that next week. It seems that my aunt Siw is a big fan of Kim Larsen and enjoyed the video clip last week. I hope some of you did too. I recommend another one of his hits, This Is My Life. Enjoy.

When you are reading this we are in Poland on our way to Krakow. Hannes is going to play padel for the Austrian team in an International tournament. We are looking forward to following the team. We are on our way with the van and will take the opportunity to do some sightseeing in Poland and in the beautiful town of Krakow.

See you then.