Lower Area of Vítkovice

The Vítkovice mining area is a national monument. It’s the only place in Europe where the entire iron production process took place at one single site and where the facilities have been preserved.

Ostrava’s Hradčany of steel

If you’ve never set eyes on this significant piece of industrial heritage, then hotfoot it to Ostrava now. The Vítkovice area takes in the large industrial complex of the Vítkovice ironworks. This is made up of three sections, which together have been dubbed “Ostrava’s Hradčany” (after the part of Prague where Prague Castle is situated). In the northern section there is the Hlubina mine, which as a source of fuel for the blast furnaces is linked to the rest of the complex. The blast furnaces, the coking plant and its chemical plant are also linked to it by a conveyor belt, drive belts and bridges. The central section focuses on engineering and in the southern part a group of industrial and administrative buildings is well worth seeing.

2,000 degrees Celsius

The Ostrava plant uses imaginative methods to explain the iron production process. Beginning at the blast furnaces, a themed trail funnels you along the route that the raw ingredients used to take. A skip lift takes you up to the jaws of the furnace, which were once fed with iron ore, coke, lime and other “ingredients”. If you’re up to it, you can ascend to the very top of the tower from where there are impressive views of the whole of Ostrava. On the way back you’ll see the terrifying innards of the furnace where the temperature often went as high as 1,500 degrees Celsius.

Glorious past, promising future

The original idea to establish an ironworks in Vítkovice came from Archduke Rudolf of Austria, Cardinal and Archbishop of Olomouc, in 1828. Gradually six furnaces were brought into operation. The entire Vítkovice area is currently undergoing complete regeneration. During this process the giant former gasworks is transformed into an innovative, multipurpose venue. In the near future the complex will also gain an industrial museum and an attraction called World of Technology, an imaginative place of education and entertainment for all the family