MUSÉE DES MINES ET MINÉRAUX DE TREPČA

Established in 1964, this national museum (Muzeu i Kristaleve të Kosovës Trepça, Državni muzej kristala i minerala Trepče) is a Mecca for mineral collectors. On display here are very rare specimens of cosalite, vivianite, ludlamite, jamesonite, pyrrhotite, arsenopyrite and dolomite. In all, 1,800 pieces of crystallized material with strange shapes and textures that all come from the Trepča mine. Exploited for its gold since antiquity, then for its lead and zinc, this one has gradually revealed its other riches, since it constitutes a phenomenal reserve of 60 million tons of minerals. But what specialists appreciate is that Trepča has a variety found only in the Dalnegorsk mine near Vladivostok in Far East Russia. Even if one is not passionate about these pebbles that look like they came from the planet Krypton, one can have a pleasant time gazing at the displays... without explanations in English. The museum is not chauvinistic, however, since it also presents a hundred specimens from Germany, Italy, France, Spain and Brazil. Part of the exhibition looks back at the history of the mine. An old model describes the eleven levels of galleries that go 200 m underground, with a total of 200 km of corridors. Outside the museum you can see the lift that takes the miners down into the bowels of this mineral cathedral every day.