Geological and Technical Heritage of Idria

Abstract

After 500 years of mining history, the last batch of ore was excavated in 1995, and in 2009 the mine was finally shut down. Through all that time, many ore, fossil and mineral collections were formed. Collecting became very popular during the Enlightenment, when several renowned scientists were working in the territory of Slovenia. Many of these collections have been preserved until the present day. The famous researchers JOANNES A. SCOPOLI (1723–1788) and BALTHASAR HACQUET (1739–1815) collected ores and minerals from the Idria mine as well as from other known Carniolan localities. Their contemporary, the founder of Slovenian mineralogy, Baron SIGMUND ZOIS (1747–1819), also made a large collection of ore specimens from Idria. The most important of all these collections is certainly the HACQUET’s mineral and ore collection, now at the Geological Museum of the Jagiellonian University in Krakow, Poland.