Friedrich-Wilhelm-Stollen

In the town of Lichtenberg lies the Friedrich-Wilhelm-Stollen, a site developed as a show mine with its own locality designation in the district of Hof (Upper Franconia, Bavaria). The adit is situated in the cadastral area of Lichtenberg and is listed by the Bavarian State Office for the Environment as Geotope 475G002.

Geographically, the adit extends along State Road 2196 between Lichtenberg and Blechschmidtenhammer; the portal near the Selbitz at the outlet of the Höllental is only a few hundred meters from the road, so the adit is clearly visible from Lichtenberg’s town boundary.

Construction of the adit goes back to a plan from 1793 associated with Alexander von Humboldt. The tunnel was completed in 1831; its original length was 975 meters. It was named after the Prussian king Friedrich Wilhelm II, who reigned at the time of construction. In the political configuration of that period, the region, including the Principality of Bayreuth, belonged to Prussia between 1791 and 1806. Technically, the Friedrich-Wilhelm-Stollen was considered advanced and served primarily to drain neighboring ore mines, particularly the Lichtenberger Friedensgrube; at the same time iron and copper ores were extracted and, later, fluorspar was mined. After a closure in 1857, fluorspar extraction resumed roughly a century later.

Today a section of about 200 meters of the originally nearly one-kilometre-long adit is accessible to visitors. A previous collapse was investigated and the adit was examined along its entire length; the formerly closed sections are being opened gradually. The show mine falls under the jurisdiction of the Bergamt Nordbayern, based in Bayreuth. On the site a mine locomotive with ore tubs commemorates the mining tradition; visitor information is housed in a barn on the former mining premises. Regular mineral days and markets are held there.

The Friedrich-Wilhelm-Stollen is integrated into hiking and educational trails on geology and mining that connect, among others, Bad Steben, Mordlau, Krötenmühle, Lichtenberg and Blechschmidtenhammer and run through the Höllental. In the immediate vicinity are the Humboldthaus, the old mining office and visible traces of mining such as bell pits and adits. The area is part of the Naturpark Frankenwald/Geopark Schieferland network.