In 1904, a rich deposit of potash was discovered by Amélie and Albert Zürcher, Joseph Vogt and Jean-Baptiste Grisez. The epic tale of Alsace’s potash mines begins.
In recent decades, 11 mining sites have ceased operations one after the other. Thanks to a certain anticipation of the end of this industry and the work of volunteers from the “Groupe Rodolphe” association, the Écomusée d'Alsace manages to save a “tile” that of the Rodolphe mine which was the most important site of exploitation established by the company of Mines of Kali Sainte Thérèse, from 1911. The mine stopped in 1976 and a large part of the installations were able to be preserved.
For more than 25 years, the Groupe Rodolphe association, living memory of the place, has maintained, rehabilitated and highlighted this rich heritage to make it the Historic Potash Mining Center.
Visiting the tile is a moment of intense emotion. The miners of the Rodolphe Group will make you relive the epic of the Potash Mines of Alsace and share their passion with the testimony of their experiences at the bottom of the mine. During this visit, they will take you on a journey in the footsteps of the potash miner, through reconstructions of production sites, to discover the 2 headframes and 2 extraction machines from 1912 and 1928, perfectly restored and in working order. walk. But you will also see surface installations that allowed ore processing and a complete and unique set of mining machines dating from the 1950s to 2004.