The Sainte Marie Coal Mine is one of the major

Ronchamp coal mines The Ronchamp Coal Mines were an area of coal mines located in the Vosges and Jura coal mining basins, in eastern France. They covered three municipalities; Ronchamp, Champagney and Magny-Danigon. Operated for more than two centuries, from the ...

, located in

Bourlémont Bourlémont is a hill located in Ronchamp, Haute-Saône, eastern France with an elevation of above sea level. It is located in the Ballons des Vosges Nature Park, and is an area of cultural tourism, given that the chapel of Notre Dame du Haut is l ...

(

Ronchamp Ronchamp () is a commune in the Haute-Saône department in the region of Bourgogne-Franche-Comté in eastern France. It is located between the Vosges and the Jura mountains. Mining Museum Mining began in Ronchamp in the mid-18th century and had ...

Haute-Saône Haute-Saône (; Arpitan: ''Hiôta-Sona''; English: Upper Saône) is a department in the Bourgogne-Franche-Comté region of northeastern France. Named after the river Saône, it had a population of 235,313 in 2019.headframe A headframe (also known as a gallows frame, winding tower, hoist frame,Ernst, Dr.-Ing. Richard (1989). ''Wörterbuch der Industriellen Technik'' (5th ed.). Wiesbaden: Oscar Brandstetter, 1989. pit frame, shafthead frame, headgear, headstock o ...

was reinforced in 1924 by Charles Tournay. This Liège engineer and architect specialized in constructing concrete headframes. On 29 March 2001, the headframe was listed as a French national ''

monument historique ''Monument historique'' () is a designation given to some national heritage sites in France. It may also refer to the state procedure in France by which National Heritage protection is extended to a building, a specific part of a building, a coll ...

''. et

Background

In 1830, a survey was conducted atop Bourlémont Hill, near the eventual site of the Sainte Marie Coal Mine, but no trace of coal was discovered. By the 1860s, the Stéphanien coal basin had been found, and the Saint-Charles, Saint-Joseph, Sainte-Pauline, and Sainte-Barbe mines were opened. Also ongoing at that time was the unsuccessful digging of the Saint-Georges pit.

Mining

In 1863, it was decided that the Saint-Charles mine should be replaced by a new mineshaft to be dug to its west. The limits of the Ronchamp basin were not yet known, and the new mine was located to the west, at the foot of Bourlémont. Digging of the 3.5-meter-diameter (11-foot) mineshaft was begun on 23 April 1864 and proceeded with the help of six horses and a steam winch. Workers completed the digging in two years, having found the coalfield at a depth of . The walls of the pit were constructed of

Portland cement Portland cement is the most common type of cement in general use around the world as a basic ingredient of concrete, mortar, stucco, and non-specialty grout. It was developed from other types of hydraulic lime in England in the early 19th c ...

. At a depth of , workers discovered another, 60-centimetre layer of coal. When the digging eventually ceased, it had reached a depth of . The mine was dug in rough soil, but there was little water infiltration, unlike at most of the mines in the Ronchamp basin. The excavation cost a total of

₣ The franc is any of various units of currency. One franc is typically divided into 100 centimes. The name is said to derive from the Latin inscription ''francorum rex'' (King of the Franks) used on early French coins and until the 18th centur ...

172,157.93. Despite its small output, the site was developed with security systems and cages to carry the coal.

Incidents

The first steam-powered hoist caused problems because as it saw use beyond the initial digging, which was its only intended purpose. The hoist broke on 13 November 1866, trapping five miners underground; they were rescued using a winch the following day. Two years later, the hoist was replaced with a machine taken from the Notre-Dame mine, which had a steam break, gears, and a spool shaft. In January 1868 an extraction cage detached and damaged the guide ropes, which led to a two-week layoff for the miners. On 24 January 1868, the mine suffered a

firedamp Firedamp is any flammable gas found in coal mines, typically coalbed methane. It is particularly found in areas where the coal is bituminous. The gas accumulates in pockets in the coal and adjacent strata and when they are penetrated the releas ...

explosion that left eight dead and damaged of its structural timbers. After its closure the mine was filled with shale and topped with a concrete slab by Cotta. It had been planned that the

headframe A headframe (also known as a gallows frame, winding tower, hoist frame,Ernst, Dr.-Ing. Richard (1989). ''Wörterbuch der Industriellen Technik'' (5th ed.). Wiesbaden: Oscar Brandstetter, 1989. pit frame, shafthead frame, headgear, headstock o ...

should be demolished, but because of strong community attachment to it as part of their heritage, it was saved in 1972 by Dr. Marcel Maulini, who went on to establish a museum of mining in Ronchamp.

Pictures

File:Dalle puits Sainte-Marie.JPG, Mineshaft slab. File:Borne puits Sainte-Marie.JPG, Shaft indicator. File:Bâtiment machine d'extraction Puits Sainte-Marie.JPG, Old hoist building. File:Puits sainte marie 3.jpg, Remains of the fan. File:Puits sainte marie 4.jpg, Remains of the control. File:Puits sainte marie 5.jpg, 1864 boiler house. Plan - puits Sainte-Marie

Notes

References

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External links

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Les amis du musée de la mine
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Hidden Monuments: a Belgian Corbusier in Ronchamp
{{Authority control Ronchamp coal mines