Samsonów blast furnace

The blast furnace at Samsonów, 20 km north of Kielce, was one of several state-owned ironworks built in Central Poland in the early 19th century at the initiative of 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.

The charcoal-fired furnace was built in 1816. The buildings were planned in the classical style, rather like that of a palace. The tower by which raw materials were raised to the high line of the furnace dominates the site, and adjoins the casting hall which is flanked by pattern-, drying- and enamelling shops. Blowing cylinders, which replaced traditional leather bellows in 1829, were first powered by a waterwheel powered by leats from the Bobrza river, and from the 1850s by a steam engine.

The plant closed after a disastrous fire in 1866, and the conserved ruins have for many years been open to the public.