VÖLKLINGEN IRONWORKS – TESTIMONY TO THE PAST

The Völklinger Hütte ("Völklingen Ironworks") is located in the German town of Völklingen, Saarland. In 1994, it was declared by UNESCO as a World Heritage site and it is also an anchor point of the European Route of Industrial Heritage. The ironworks, which cover some 6 ha, dominate the whole city of Völklingen. Although they have recently gone out of production, they are the only intact example, in the whole of western Europe and North America, of an integrated ironworks that was built and equipped in the 19th and 20th centuries and has remained intact. It is the only surviving ironworks in the world from the heyday of iron and steel production and a unique testimony to an industrial epoch of the past.