Carreau Rodolphe

" Discover one of the mining jewels of the 20th century. Accompanied by a former miner, discover the potash of Alsace. "

In 1904, a rich potash deposit was discovered by Amélie and Albert Zürcher, Joseph Vogt and Jean-Baptiste Grisez. The epic of the potash mines of Alsace began.

Over the last few decades, the 11 mining sites have been closed down one after the other. Thanks to a certain anticipation of the end of this industry and to the work of the volunteers of the "Rodolphe Group" association, the Ecomusée d'Alsace managed to save one "tile", that of the Rodolphe mine, which was the most important mining site established by the Kali Sainte Thérèse Mines company, from 1911. The mine stopped in 1976 and a large part of the installations have been preserved.
For more than 25 years, the Rodolphe Group association, the living memory of the site, has been maintaining, rehabilitating and promoting this rich heritage to create the Historic Potash Mine Centre.

A visit to the pit is a moment of intense emotion. The miners of the Rodolphe Group will help you relive the epic of the Alsace Potash Mines and share their passion with you through 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, in reconstructions of the production sites, to discover the 2 headframes and 2 extraction machines from 1912 and 1928, perfectly restored and in working order. But you will also see the surface installations used to process the ore and a complete set of mining machines from the 1950s to 2004, which is unique in France.