site.btaFirst of Its Kind Mine Museum in Madan Attracts over 15,000 Visitors from Bulgaria, Abroad in 2023

Madan has become a destination for mining tourism after the opening of an underground mine museum, the first of its kind in Bulgaria, said Elena Uzunova from the Madan Municipality on Friday. 

Tour guide Nedzhmi Eminev noted that in 2023, more than 15,000 visitors passed through the Spoluka Mine Museum, located in a former mine of the Gorubso mining plant. Mostly Bulgarians visit the site in Madan, with tourists arriving from India, Pakistan, Turkiye, Greece, France and the United Kingdom. 

The tourist complex in Madan was equipped and renovated within a project financed under the INTERREG Greece - Bulgaria Cross-border Cooperation Programme 2014-2020, with a budget of EUR 1.2 million. The project transformed the former mining galleries into an underground museum, while the Crystal Hall has been completely renovated, presenting today the collection of crystals, ores and various finds from the mines of Madan. Visitors can see crystal compositions of amethyst, quartz, sphalerite, agate.

The leading partner of the project was Madan Municipality, in partnership with Greece's Pylaia-Chortiatis Municipality, the Sofia University of Mining and Geology, the University of Thrace in Xanthi and the International Hellenic University in Thessaloniki. The Greek part of the project was related to topographic mapping, research and pilot restoration activities in areas in the Pylaia-Chortiatis Municipality.