Ruhr Area
The domed coke mixing plant in Oberhausen is the most remarkable remains of the former Osterfeld coal mine.
Coal mines
In the French coal basin of Nord-pas-de-Calais, Germany's Ruhr and Saarland, England, Wales, and Belgium, coal was brought to the surface in hundreds of coal mines for many years. Today, coal mines have become heritage sites or have been demolished.
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Ruhr Area
A stone's throw from the headquarters of the Zeche Zollverein in Essen, a headframe has been preserved from a smaller coal mine that was part of the mining giant.
Hainaut
At the end of 2014, the demolition hammer threatened the modernist concrete mine shaft of Saint-Albert in the village of Péronnes-lez-Binche.
Hauts-de-France
The blue-painted headframe is all that remains of the French Sabatier coal mine, closed in 1980.
Hauts-de-France
Oignies is the last place in the French mining basin of the Pas-de-Calais region where coal was exploited. The mine did not close until December 1990.
Ruhr Area
In 1890, coal mines were popping up like mushrooms in the German Ruhr area. The Zeche Zollern was one of the seventy newcomers you can still visit today.
Hauts-de-France
On the border of the French town of Lens stands this 66-meter-high colossus made of reinforced concrete: the extraction tower of Fosse n° 11-19, a French coal mine that closed 30 years ago.
Wales
Thanks to Blaenavon Ironworks and the Big Pit coal mine, a Welsh, once modest village became one of the key players in the Industrial Revolution in the 19th century.
Wales
Former miner Glyn Roberts takes us on a tour of Tower Colliery, the coal mine where he worked since the 1960s. He saw one mine after another close in South Wales, and in 1994, the death bells also sounded over Tower Colliery.
Ruhr Area
In the 19th century, the tentacles of the Walloon coal industry in Belgium reached deep into the German Ruhr area.
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Eighty years ago, the world witnessed the fall of Berlin—and with it, the end of the deadliest conflict in human history. On May 8, 1945, Victory in Europe (VE) Day marked the official surrender of Nazi Germany.
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