Have you already visited the Slanské vrchy Mountains? In the middle of them, between Prešov and Košice, the oldest opal mines in the world hide their underground secrets from the world. With their amazing surface area, which consists of approximately 30 km of tunnels, they are also the most extensive in the world. In their golden days, some 300 miners worked here in search of the most beautiful of all gems for the royal courts - the opal. Ours, the Slovak one, has a specific colour, background and colour scheme. It is beautifully sparkling and different from the others. Although mining was stopped in 1922 and the mines closed, exactly one hundred years later, in the 2022 season we welcome tourists to tour the new conditions.
On selected summer dates, the mines will also organise the extremely popular opal hunt for children, usually every Tuesday and Thursday at 10.30 a.m. Follow our Facebook page, where you can find fresh information.
After a hundred years, visitors have a lot to look forward to!
Directly in the area near the Jozef shed we have built a beautiful new modern tourist centre, where you will find a café, a souvenir shop, sanitary facilities, as well as exhibits from the mine. There is also a conference room on the first floor of the building, as the interest of companies and work teams in team building in opal mines has been growing in recent years. Also new is mobile buffet with a selection of hot meals, located outside, right next to the building.
More than 25 000 tourists from different parts of the world visit the Jozef Shed every year.
Visitors can explore the opal underground full of historical exhibits as part of the basic guided tour. For foreign tourists are prepared audio guides in six languages. The basic tourist circuit is almost a kilometre long and the tour takes an hour. Those who would like to see more can take the 5-hour stay underground in a small group with a guide and walk according to your own condition and 12 km underground, discover various nooks and crannies, great halls, the opal church, the alunogen and many other amazing underground sites where visitors do not normally get to.
On selected summer dates, the mines will also organise the extremely popular opal hunt for children, usually every Tuesday and Thursday at 10.30 a.m. Follow our Facebook page, where you can find fresh information.
