Hlubina Mine and Vítkovice Ironworks Ostrava

The panorama of the Vítkovice Ironworks is visible from a great distance. They stretch along the Ostravice River and Místecká Street and are still a reminder of the lost industrial glory of Ostrava's Vítkovice in the first half of the 19th century. The original poodle kiln used to be in these places from 1828. In 2008, the local complex was inscribed on the European Cultural Heritage List as the first Czech monument.

The lower area of ​​Vítkovice is valuable and exceptional especially in connection with coal mining, coking and production of pig iron in blast furnaces, in a relatively long period of time. The production of iron here took place continuously from the 1920s until the end of the 20th century.

The Archbishop of Olomouc, Archduke Rudolf Jan, was involved in the creation of the Vítkovice Ironworks project, and he entrusted F.X. Riedl, a professor at the Vienna Polytechnic. In 1998, on the occasion of the 170th celebrations of the founding of the ironworks, a bust of the founder of the ironworks, Rudolf Jan, was erected in front of the administrative building of the ironworks. Originally, Rudolf's smelter (later Vítkovice Ironworks) was the first of its kind in the entire Austrian monarchy.

The first blast furnace was put into operation in 1836, and shortly thereafter, in 1843, the Hlubina Mine was opened. A complete technological flow of coal mining, coking plant and iron production was ensured in the area. In 1991, mining was terminated and in 1998, the entire Vítkovice Ironworks was shut down.

In 2002, the Dolní Vítkovice complex was declared a national cultural monument, and in 2012 a new tour was opened here, during which visitors can reach the top of Blast Furnace No. 1, and a new Gong lecture hall and concert hall were put into operation. At the end of the same year, a new exhibition of the Little World of Technology was opened and opened here.

Author: Andrea Štyndlová