Sygun Copper Mine
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Sygun Copper Mine is a Victorian copper mine that was closed in 1903 and reopened by the Prince of Wales in 1987 as a tourist attraction focused on audiovisual tours of the underground workings. It is located about 2km outside of the village of Beddgelert in the Snowdonia National Park in North Wales. It has won the Prince of Wales Award for Tourism.
The Sygun complex also includes an art museum, the Sygun Museum of Wales, and a Welsh mythology/history section, the Red Dragon Heritage Centre.[1] The museum has one of the largest art collections of any privately controlled museum in Great Britain, small portions being exhibited at various times throughout the year. The collection is split into two main departments, antique and 20th century. The antique department houses paintings dating from the 16th century until the end of the Victorian period. The 20th century department includes large collections of works by Hedley Carrington, Tom Keating, Roberto Valente, and Miney Todd.[citation needed]
In 2002 the mine and its subsidiaries were put up for sale on the retirement of the original developers.[2] The following year its buyers began an ambitious building project funded in part by the sale of art and in part by the organisation's chairman.[citation needed]
[edit] Popular Culture
The copper mine's original buildings, some of which still exist, were shown in the 1958 film The Inn of the Sixth Happiness.[3]
[edit] References
- ^ Red Dragon Heritage Centre
- ^ Welsh mining history up for sale with a pounds 450,000 price tag, Daily Post (Liverpool, England), Jul 31 2002
- ^ Internet Movie Database
