Successful year 2024 for the mineral exhibition of the TU Bergakademie Freiberg and the Krügerhaus
According to Managing Director Andrea Riedel, terra mineralia had 61,050 visitors in 2024; the Krügerhaus had 5,102. In 2023, around 67,000 and around 5,000 visitors respectively were counted. This makes terra mineralia a beacon of tourism in the silver town of Freiberg. Since 2017, the mineral exhibition at TU Bergakademie Freiberg has recorded stable visitor numbers in the region of 60,000. Visitor numbers to the Krügerhaus have also remained stable over the past five years (except 2020/2021) at around 5,000 visits per year.
Terra mineralia celebrated its 15th anniversary last year and redesigned the windows overlooking the castle courtyard to mark the occasion. "A lot has also happened in the exhibition rooms themselves in 2024," says Managing Director Andrea Riedel. "The thematic introduction to the mineral exhibition, has been redesigned - with the aim of providing visitors with an even better overview of the main topics. All of the topics presented are related to the Ore Mountains/Krušnohoří World Heritage region, which forms a new starting point for the museum tour." The audio guide has also undergone a "refresh" in this context. In addition to the guide, visitors can now find QR codes in the exhibitions that deepen their knowledge. "The new audio guides have already been used extensively by visitors," says Andrea Riedel.
The new starting point also places a special emphasis on the life's work of collector Dr Erika Pohl-Ströher. The terra mineralia can only be visited thanks to loans from the Pohl-Ströher Mineral Foundation, which has 20,000 exhibits. With 3,500 minerals, gemstones and meteorites on an exhibition area of 1,500 square metres and a total area of 3,000 square metres, terra mineralia is one of the largest and most beautiful mineral exhibitions in the world. In the immediate vicinity is the Krügerhaus with the exhibition "Mineralogical Collection Germany" on an exhibition area of 400 square metres, in which minerals from Germany from various donors and lenders are exhibited.