The project “Making the Bohumír Mine Accessible and Opening the Kowary Mining Open-Air Museum – New Tourist Products in the Czech-Polish Borderland” continues several years of activities aimed at popularising mining traditions.
The non-governmental organisation Důl Jan Šverma ops from the town of Zaclerz in the Czech Republic is the City of Kowary’s project partner.
The open-air museum is the most important part of the project on the Kowary side. In parallel, the Czech partner is building an underground tourist route in Jívka, in a former copper mine. The project crowns many joint integration activities, including meetings and information exchanges for former miner residents. The participants organise anniversary events and publish materials promoting mining traditions using EU funds under microprojects financed through Euroregions.
The construction of the Mining Heritage Open-Air Museum involved developing plot no. 397/83 in Kowary and included the following works: creating a pedestrian path and installing open-air museum elements consisting of an exhibition of equipment (tracks, a mine cart, a loader, a tower and tunnel supports), geological elements (various rocks occurring in the Karkonosze Mountains), and information boards. Work was also carried out on small-scale architecture and greenery elements (verges and slopes).
The construction of the Mining Heritage Open-Air Museum of the City of Kowary is one element of a project carried out jointly with the partner from Zaclerz and co-financed by European Union ERDF funds under the European Territorial Cooperation Programme of the Republic of Poland and the Czech Republic.
Total eligible expenditure for the project on the City of Kowary’s side amounts to EUR 29,030, while on the Czech partner’s side it amounts to EUR 328,542.
Funding from the European Regional Development Fund amounts to 85%; each partner, including Kowary, covers 15% of the project activity costs.
The open-air museum was built by a company from Podgórzyn. Details on the Kowary municipal office website.
The project entitled “Preserving Mining Traditions – Developing Tourist Infrastructure in Polish-Czech Borderland Cities by Making the Bohumír Mine Accessible and Opening a Mining Open-Air Museum in Kowary” is co-financed by the European Regional Development Fund under the Operational Programme of Cross-Border Cooperation between the Czech Republic and the Republic of Poland 2007–2013.
Bartosz Lipiński/UM Kowary/ii