Vinařice is a village that has been associated with hard coal mining since the 19th century. There is the Mayrau Mining Museum, which allows you to learn about the work of miners in the 19th and 20th centuries.
The town was founded in the 13th century, but it was important primarily as a local trade and craft center. Its rapid development took place only in the 19th century, when coal deposits were discovered here. Most of the mines around Vinařice operated until the 1990s.
The Mayrau mine was the largest mine in Vinařice. It was founded in 1874, and it was closed in 1994. Almost immediately after its closure, it was turned into a mining open-air museum. Thanks to this, it was possible to keep it as if the miners had just left their jobs.
The museum has an above-ground and an underground part. Mostly, it shows what the miners' work looked like just before the closure of the excavation. However, there is also a section devoted to the 19th century techniques of coal mining. You can see, among others devices from the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, which when they were purchased, were among the most modern in Europe.
