The Altenberg is one of the three mining sectors in Sainte-Marie-aux-Mines (Vosges, France). It is the only one which was exploited before the Modern Age: it has been demonstrated that the mining exploitation did not stop from the 9th c. to the 17th c. Hundreds of archaeological sites can be found along the 4 km vein system (galena, tetrahedrite): remains of ancient mines, workshops and houses. Among them, in the middle of the sector, the mine Sainte-Barbe is both a point of convergence for surroundings exploitations and a representative example of the Altenberg evolution. The importance of the production in this mine can surely explain the development of infrastructure facilities used by several extraction sites around. Moreover, the 11th-12th c. smelting place, the 15th c. ore dressing place and the 16th c. smith show the increasing distance between mines and workshops, which are progressively set at the foot of the slopes, near the rivers.