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Until the 14th century, the ore containing copper and lead/silver mined at Schneeberg was partly worked at Schneeberg itself. This is shown by the remains of foundries thickly coated with carbon and waste dumps, which can be found up to an altitude of 2,450 metres. There is a picture of Schneeberg, painted around 1750, showing the Seemoos foundry called S. Franzisge Hidten (St. Francis’ Hut; Hidte/Hütte = foundry). It cannot have been on a very grand scale, since a final annual production of about 30 kg of fine silver has been calculated, requiring the working of about 30 tons of galena, with repeated ‘roasting’ of the ore to extract its sulphur contents. But it was labour-intensive work and necessitated a great deal of timber.
Later, the lack of timber, caused by the continual felling of trees and increased excavation, obliged the workers to move their foundries to increasingly lower altitudes. Traditionally, the ore was loaded into sacks made of pigs’ skins which, if the ground was covered with snow, were dragged down to the valley in ‘trains’* along specially prepared trails.
The foundries were in areas with abundant mid-mountain forests. The woodland throughout Passeier was reserved for the mines, which meant that, as well as timber used for construction, fuel, stakes for supports in the galleries, and yet more wood for roasting the rock, charcoal was also produced to heat the foundry ovens and for forges.**
The name of the Hütt (foundry) property at Rabenstein still today reveals the ancient existence of one of these foundries at the foot of Schneeberg, and there is another locality called Hütt in the Pfelderer Tal. The Silberhütt (silver holdings) at Stuls are even more eloquent testimonies, when we think that the old network of communications avoided the bottom of the valley and ran along the mountain sides. Other clues to the ‘silver way’ out of the valley are the Silberstallele (silver depot) at Rabenstein and the Silbergasse (silver road) at St. Leonhard.
For many years, the silver was taken to the old capital of the Tyrol, Meran, about a day’s march (35 km) from Schneeberg. There had been a mint in the parish square ever since 1253, although unminted silver could still be sold well.
However, the method of hauling ore using long ‘trains’ of sacks never took on the importance of transport by draught animals such as horses and mules***, and for many centuries most supplies at Schneeberg were carried in this way, until the railway came to the mountains in 1874.
Transport by horse and mule and general carrying of goods for a long period was almost a monopoly of the inhabitants of Passeier. They had the necessary meadows for grazing their animals and permanent centres like Saltnuß , Hütt, Schönau and Rabenstein, all of which were quite near Schneeberg.
*‘Trains’ of ore-sacks
Four or five sacks of ore, tied together, each weighing 56 kg, were called ‘trains’. Still today, the mountain folk drag down to the valleys hay, straw and timber on specially slippery paths.
Hans Wallnöfer recounts that there is a votive figure in the little church at Schneeberg, illustrating this mode of transport.
**The forge
By forge, we mean the fireplace in masonry inside the forge. Ever since the Middle Ages, the meadows immediately below Schneeberg have been called Öß or Esse, meaning a forge belonging to the mine.
***Draught animals used for transport
A mule and its driver in a picture dating back to 1430. Mules could carry up to 150 kg of goods in two baskets or sacks.
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history
history of mining on Schneeberg
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