Ardennes Metallurgy Museum

The Metallurgy Museum explores the heritage of the Ardennes mountain range as a former heartland of the iron industry. Opened in 1986, it occupies a large factory built in 1884, which produced nuts, bolts and fittings for the railway industry. The museum takes visitors on a journey through the evolution of iron making, beginning in the Middle Ages, when nails were forged by hand on the banks of the Meuse, and continuing with mechanisation powered by water wheels or animals. Equipment such as hand forges, mechanical presses and examples of the steam hammer are also on display and photographs, models and digital animations help reconstruct the industry. From the twenty-first century, visitors see the new world of 3D printing with the demonstration of a printer producing everyday objects. The visit ends with a short film featuring interviews with local factory workers in the metal trades, past and present.