Odval Dolu Felix – Jan
History
The Celts were the first coal miners in the region of the present Kladno. They mined the so-called sapropelic coal, from which they made jewellery. The first written record of coal mining in the wider region of Kladno is from 1463, when there was a coal mine near Malé Přílepy. It is the oldest dated record of coal mining in Bohemia.
In 1874, Pražská železářská společnost, a. s. leased the first
allotments in the Motyčín-Vinařice field, and the excavation of a new pit
started in the same year. The pit’s circular section was 3.95 m. The
excavated material was first extracted using a manual winch; later, a
boiler-powered machine was installed. When the depth of 12.8 m was reached, a
shaft bottom and a tower were built. Before 1874, the pit was 80 m deep. After
a coal-seam was reached in 515.2 m on 28 September 1877, the new pit was named
Mayrau. 
The pit was named after then-chairman of the board of Pražská
železářská společnost, a. s., JUDr. Kajetán Mayer. The locals called it
Trhanka, after the eponymous Italian company’s workers who blew up rocks to
make way for new railways in Silesia. The excavation of the pit finished on
8 October 1874, and, after the installation of the tower and machinery, the
mining started and continued without interruption until 30 June 1997. A 0.7km
train line was built leading to the pit from Tuháň train station near Barré
pit, from which it connected to the coal line Dubí-Kralupy nad Vltavou. In
1901, the mine got its own electric exchange. In June 1906, the original winder
at the Mayrau pit was replaced with a twin winder bought from Ringhoffer
Smíchov. In 1940, the steam engine was replaced with a compressed-air engine.
After nationalization, the name was changed to Důl Fierlinger; after the merger
with Důl President Beneš, the mining operation was transferred to Důl
Fierlinger I in 1952, and to Důl Gottwald II in 1957. In 1990, the original
name Mayrau was restored. The pit was eventually closed and made safe by the
mining service company Služby dolů Kladno, a. s. in 1998, however the
buildings were not demolished and now form a part of the Open Air Mining
Museum. 
