1948–1989 · 1963 State mines, and a museum in the town hallŠtátne bane a múzeum v radnici

Under communism the mines were state property, and mining in the Hnilec valley went on — smaller each decade, kept going for the jobs rather than for the profit. What grew instead was commuting: the enormous new steelworks built beside Košice from the end of the 1950s drew workers off the whole eastern half of the country, and a train from Gelnica was an hour of a working day. In 1963 the mining museum moved into the old town hall of 1802, which is where you find it today. It is an unusual thing for a town of this size to have, and it is there for a simple reason: the record it keeps is the entire history of the place.Za socializmu boli bane štátne a ťažba v Hnileckej doline pokračovala — každé desaťročie menšia, držaná skôr pre prácu než pre zisk. Rástlo namiesto toho dochádzanie: obrovské nové železiarne, ktoré od konca 50. rokov stavali pri Košiciach, brali robotníkov z celej východnej polovice krajiny a vlak z Gelnice bol hodinou pracovného dňa. Roku 1963 sa do starej radnice z roku 1802 nasťahovalo banícke múzeum a je tam dodnes. Na mesto takejto veľkosti je to nezvyčajná vec a je tu z jednoduchého dôvodu: to, čo múzeum uchováva, sú celé dejiny tohto miesta.