Up, up, up
Actually ... it's down, down, down! Nearly 300 metres below the surface in fact.

This is the lift tower, standing directly above <i>Jožefov jašek</i> (Joseph's shaft) - the main entrance to the now abandoned <a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/jumpinjack/37282720086/">mercury mine</a> in Idrija.

Carts with ore were lifted through this shaft, then emptied onto gondola lift cars, which hauled the ore few kilometres across Idrija to the smelting plants on the other side of town.

The gondola lift was built in second half of 20th century, when the richest ore had been already extracted from the mine, so there probably wasn't much danger of quicksilver raining down on people walking through the town below - although you never know. Anyway, I'm sure than inhaling ore dust blowing out of those cars couldn't be too good for your health either...

But hey, since some people in Idrija lived (and some still do!) in the old smelting plants themselves (yes, literally in the old furnaces, walls imbued with mercury - fortunately most of those buildings have been torn down by now), I don't think anybody cared too much.
lift elevator tower steel construction jožefov jašek old disused abandoned decrepit building decay mercury quicksilver mine shaft tunnel entrance idrija slovenia unesco world heritage wood wooden boards planks hdr wacky perspective ultrawide lens sigma 8mm