Ózd Museum and Factory History Memorial Park

Ózd in the north of Hungary was a centre for ironmaking from the sixteenth century. In 1848 a large smelter and forge opened with coal mines and brickworks to supply it. It grew in the 1870s and 1880s with steel furnaces and rail transport and in the 1980s as the nationalized Metal Works of Ózd it employed 14,000 people. It closed in the 1990s. The museum has developed since 1971 in the magnificent factory school of 1895. Much of it is devoted to industrial heritage. As well as equipment, documents and photographs, it is rich in models, many of them made with the expertise of factory employees. These show rolling mills, blast furnaces, puddling furnaces, railways, and even the whole ironworks. Interactive exhibits show technological principles. Other parts of the museum cover local history and culture, crafts, the history of the school and other subjects. Outside are exhibited large industrial objects including a railway locomotive from 1898, rolling mills, a pillar-drill and a stationary steam engine of 1890.