15.05.2008
The fascination of the Voelklingen Ironworks
In 1994, the Voelklingen Ironworks became the first plant from the heyday of industrialisation to be declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site. For more than a century, the Voelklingen Ironworks (in German spelled: Völklingen) had shaped the lives of many thousands of people. Today, it is the only fully preserved ironworks from the 19th and 20th centuries.
The multi-media journey in time through the history of the Völklingen Ironworks, presented in the introductory show, impinges on all the visitor's senses. It is the starting-point on a 5000-metre circuit which leads to seven stations, passing through the world's largest sintering-plant with its enormous ventilators and sintering-machines. In the sintering process, residues from iron production were recycled and ploughed back into the blast furnace system.
At one time, vast quantities of ore were stored in the ore shed. Today, its roof offers the visitor a panoramic view of Völklingen, the rail track system and the active Saarstahl steelworks. The panorama also takes in the blower shed and the sintering-plant. Inside the shed, which has been made into a new exhibition and cultural arena, 22 groups of works by Duane Hanson were presented in an area of 800 m2 until May 12th.
In the burden shed, the 'belly' of the ironworks, 12,000 tonnes of raw material were once stored. On the upper level, railway wagons brought in the raw materials; on the lower level, the monorail cars with which those raw materials were taken up to the blast furnaces were loaded. The burden shed was built between 1911 and 1913, and is now the arena for an exhibition of highlights of
reporting photography.
The monorail cars ran along the top platform (28 metres above ground level) and filled the six blast furnaces with raw materials. At 45 metres, the viewing-platform offers the visitor a fascinating view out over the World Cultural
Heritage Site and the industrial landscape along the Saar. Then the walkway leads down to the tapping-level, where the molten pig iron was tapped from the blast furnace.
In the coking plant, at a temperature of 1300°C, fire turned coal into coke. The terrific heat and pungent smoke made this workplace one of the toughest in the whole of the Völklingen Ironworks. The coal came from Saarland and other coalfields in the region. The first coke ovens at the Völklingen Ironworks - there being more than 100 all together – were set to work in 1897.
On the coal track, visitors can experience a breathtaking panoramic view. It spreads from the blast furnaces with their inclined ore lift (unique worldwide), the ore bunkers, the water tower and the craftsmen's lane of the World Cultural Heritage Site at the Völklingen Ironworks. At the foot of the inclined ore lift is the entrance to the ScienceCenter Ferrodrom®. On the lower level of the burden shed, over 10,000 m2 in area, the visitor is whisked away into the fascinating world of iron and steel. The four elements fire, water, air and earth, vital to the production of iron, can be experienced at first hand. The history of iron and that of the Völklingen Ironworks become tangible at Ferrodrom®, where more than 100 hands-on exhibits invite the visitor to experiment.
The enormous blowers, which once generated up to 300,000 m3 of blast for the blast furnaces, dominate the blower shed. Today, the blower shed is a fascinating arena for exhibitions and events. The blowers are unique worldwide.
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