Ironworks Museum

The principal museum of the Staropolski Industrial Region, where Stanislaw Staszic(1755-1826), Director of the Division of Industry and Mining of the Congress Kingdom of Poland between 1816 and 1824, and chairman of the Board of Directors of Mining for the Kielce region established a series of state-owned iron-working enterprises in the early 19th century, is in the former rolling mill at Sielpia Wielka, 40 km north-west of Kielce.

The works was built between 1825 and 1842 and consisting of a forge producing wrought-iron by puddling, and a water-powered rolling mill, together with workers’ housing and community buildings, all in the neo-classical style. It remained in operation until 1934, when it closed and became a museum. After it had been largely-destroyed during the Second World War, it was restored from 1956, and historic machines from other industrial sites were displayed in its buildings, including a steam pump of 1858 made by Rudolf Siebert of Friedland-in-Maehren and a lathe of the 1850s made in England by James Fox. There is also a display of art castings made by iron foundries in the region. The rolling mill and puddling furnaces were reconstructed in the 1990s.