Mining disaster
The earth collapsed with a dull rumble. This is how you can imagine the mining catastrophe that took place at the turn of the year 1592/1593. What happened. As in today's visitor mine, on the western side of the Hosenbachtal the copper ores were extracted in the rich ore zones in expansion construction. The "Birfinck" mine was on a par with the Hosenberg in terms of its size and extent and as a result there were large underground mining cavities. Apparently the mining had come too close to the surface or mining mistakes had been made in leaving rock pillars to support the mine: the mine workings collapsed. According to the old springs, fortunately no one was hurt, but mining operations were severely restricted. This is how a so-called daybreak was created, today called the "tournament field". However, its appearance had little in common with the current situation. Instead of the flat one today At the bottom you have to imagine a jumbled block of rock. The edges of the break were irregular and threatened to collapse. Only over time did the break masses come to rest. The dimensions of the break are a maximum of around 100 to 70 meters. Source: Text information board
One man's suffering, another man's joy
While the collapse of the "Birfinck" mine was a catastrophe for the operators at the time, which led to massive production losses and put economic operation into question for a long time, it was an advantage for later times that was finally exploited in the 18th century. It is known from the surviving mining accounts that in the middle of the 18th century the "Birfinck" mine was mined in quantities similar to those in Hosenberg. In some cases, the break in daylight was taken advantage of. The ores were mined in opencast mines, where the ore-bearing quarry masses were extracted and new mine workings were built on the quarry walls. In the 3rd quarter of 1780, there is evidence that 175 carts "Puchertz from the Birfincker Bruch" were mined. During this time, the Tagesbruch took on the basic features of its current shape. Source: Text information board