Iron and steel

Dive into the heart of Europe's industrial revolution with a visit to its iron and steel heritage sites. From monumental blast furnaces to historic forges, explore the engineering feats that fueled progress.

34 destinations

Charleroi

Relics of the Providence steel mill

Between the Sambre and the Brussels-Charleroi canal, the industrialist and politician Ferdinand Puissant built the Forges de la Providence in 1832, an iron factory for which he sourced the mustard from the Englishman Thomas Bonehill.

East Flanders

First and oldest wrought iron suspension bridge on the mainland

In the East Flemish village of Basel, there is a two-hundred-year-old suspension bridge that engineer Jean-Baptiste Vifquain designed on behalf of Philippe Vilain XIIII, a Dutch King William I chamberlain.

Saarland

Monumental industrial world heritage

Julius Buch built the Völklinger Hütte in 1873, where steel was produced until 1986.

Aachen

Traces of the Cockerills in Stolberg

The Cockerillstraße in Stolberg, Germany, already reveals that the Cockerill family also established itself near Aachen in the early nineteenth century.

Ruhr Area

Old blast furnace in the Ruhr area

One of the oldest preserved blast furnaces in the Ruhr area, the Henrichshütte in Hattingen, was built in 1854.

Wales

Iron in Wales: Blaenavon Ironworks

Thanks to the use of 18th-century cutting-edge technology - coal and steam - Blaenavon Ironworks in south Wales became the second largest iron producer in the world.

Wales

Ruins of a blast furnace

Judging from the crumbled remains of Clydach Ironworks, you wouldn't expect more than a thousand people to have been working here in 1840.

The first cast iron bridge in the world by night

United Kingdom

The cradle of the Industrial Revolution

The cradle of the industrial revolution is in Ironbridge, England. Reason enough to visit the village, which owes its name to the first cast iron bridge in the world, built in 1779 over the Severn River.

Nordrhein-Westfalen

Abandoned coal and ore bunkers

This 240-meter-long and 12-meter-high massive block of concrete once formed the storehouse with ores and coal for the Schalker Verein steel factory.

Ruhr Area

Ruins of Schalker Verein switching building

The ruins of the switch building are part of the demolished Schalker Verein steel factory in Gelsenkirchen, Germany.

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Iron and steel

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