The last shift was worked at Big Pit in 1980

Big Pit in Blaenavon is one of 10 attractions short listed for the �100,000 Gulbenkian Prize for museum of the year.

A working pit until 1980, the underground museum reopened last February after a �7.1m facelift.

It pulled in a record 141,000 visitors in 2004, up from 112,000 in 2003.

Contenders for the prize were announced on Friday.

They include a railway museum, an art gallery and a stone island cairn.

Big Pit is one of six sites operated by the National Museums and Galleries of Wales (NMGW) and is the only Welsh entry in the Gulbenkian shortlist.

Gulbenkian Prize shortlist Museum of Barnstaple & North Devon Big Pit, National Mining Museum of Wales, Blaenavon National Trust West Midlands for Back to Backs, Birmingham The Fitzwilliam Museum, University of Cambridge for its Courtyard Development, Compton Verney, Warwickshire Coventry Transport Museum Time and Tide, Museum of Great Yarmouth Life, Great Yarmouth, Norfolk Taigh Chearsabhagh Museum & Art Gallery, Lochmaddy, North Uist for its Carn Chearsabhagh Project The Foundling Museum, London Locomotion: the National Railway Museum at Shildon, Co Durham

"This is not only excellent news for Big Pit and Blaenavon, but also for Wales as a whole," said NMGW's deputy director Eurwyn William.

Reaching the shortlist for the award, whose winner will be unveiled in May, is another boost for the Blaenavon area, which was made a World Heritage site five years ago, ranking it alongside international icons like the Taj Mahal.

At the height of its working life a century ago, Big Pit employed 1,300 miners but the last shift was worked there in 1980.

Even before its revamp, the museum had tried to make visitors' experience interactive, allowing them to descend 300 feet down a mine shaft accompanied by former miners who now act as guides.

Since the work, more of the mine's former working areas have been opened up with the pit head baths on view as well as the fan-house on top of the mine shaft.

Former miners act as guides for visitors

Mine manager Peter Walker said: "There are lots of fine museums in there (the short list) so competition will be tough.

"Big Pit has been nominated for what it's always been - a real coal mine with real miners."

Welsh Culture Minister Alun Pugh, himself a coalminer's son, said: "To be short listed for the Gulbenkian Prize is a remarkable accolade, but one that Big Pit fully deserves."

Last year's extensive redevelopment work has transformed the site into a "truly world-class attraction", he added.

Last year, a travelling exhibition that brought Pembrokeshire's Romany heritage to life made it to the final four in the race for the prize which was won by the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburgh, for its Landform exhibition.