Blast Furnace 'A' of Huta Pokój Ironworks

For Ruda Śląska, Huta Pokój, being the original owner of the Blast Furnace, is a special facility because the roots of the city emerged thanks to the establishment of a metallurgical plant here in 1840. A large part of the development in the central district of the city was built for employees of the ironworks, and often also by owners of this industrial plant. The plant was the leading facility of this type in the country, applying the latest technological solutions. A basic Bessemer shop was established in Huta Pokój in 1884, then open-hearth steelworks in 1887. In the interwar period, Huta Pokój was the largest plant of this type in Poland. It manufactured approx. 30% of pig iron produced in Poland and approx. 20% of raw steel. Its share in the production of all Upper Silesian mills was approx.40%.

The Blast Furnace, still present in Huta Pokój, was erected in 1968. It was built 19 m from the place where it is situated now, and then the furnace was moved to its current location. Owing to the use of such technology, construction of the Blast Furnace lasted only 105 days instead of one and a half years. The operation of moving the 1780-tonne object was considered to be one of the greatest technical achievements of the ironworks, and was one of the first such operations in Europe. The operation was recorded in the Polish Film Chronicle of that time. Twenty years later, in 1987, modernisation works were carried out, adapting the blast furnace to ferromanganese smelting. Further renovation works were carried out in 1995-1997. However, manufacturing was resumed as late as in 2004. The furnace was finally extinguished due to ecological reasons in 2005.

In 2019, the city of Ruda Śląska, in co-operation with the Association of Polish Architects, organised an international architecture competition for the project of revitalisation and adaptation of the Blast Furnace in Huta Pokój in Ruda Śląska to tourist and cultural purposes. According to the winning concept, the construction and detailed design of adaptation of the blast furnace to its new functions is now being prepared, owing to which the furnace will be available for tourists.

Blast Furnace 'A' of Huta Pokój Ironworks
Wielki Piec Huty 'Pokój'
Niedurnego 79
41-709 Ruda Śląska
Poland
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