exciting impressions and experiences. A large part of this is due to the dedicated staff, for the first time including a geologist this year. Finally, Tim Schönwetter from the Geowelt Fortuna board emphasised [...] in the long term. On our way to becoming an information and documentation centre for Hesse's iron industry, however, a lot of money will still be needed, e.g. for what is truly a gem, the historicist engine

A key role is played by Freiberg, a major mining centre in the region and the first free mining town in Germany following early traces of silver in 1168. It is also home to the Bergakademie (Mining Academy) [...] Castle , which explores, with its passementerie workshop, a very particular branch of the textile industry. Another castle, Wildeck Castle in Zschopau, has a motorbike exhibition in honour of the Dane Jørgen

mining in the province of Bizkaia, thus transforming this sub-region into a European centre of heavy industry. A typical example is the blast furnace No. 1 of Altos Hornos de Vizcaya in Sestao, its setting [...] the Bilbao Maritime Museum and – further downstream in Getxo – by the Puente Colgante , the world's first transporter bridge. Getxo is also home to the mansions of wealthy tycoons, whose history is revealed [...] salt shovel and learn about salt harvesting. In Álava, industrialisation only gained momentum in the first half of the 20th century, the focus being on the oil, chemical, automotive and electrical industries

vehicles still relied on horsepower, even for long distances. At Manchester's Museum of Science and Industry , located in the world's oldest surviving passenger station of 1830, the railway already entered [...] the Talyllyn Railway in Wales, which has been in operation since 1951 and claims to be the world's first museum railway. Thus, it is also a major milestone on the long journey to conserving the railway heritage

t Cosulich family. Together with the local shipbuilding industry, that family is at the centre of the MuCa - Museum of the Shipbuilding Industry . It is housed in a grand Viennese Art Nouveau building [...] Factory. Museum of Energy in Ponferrada, Spain, symbolises a new, promising technology: light as first application in the history of industrial power generation. Built in 1919, the thermal power station [...] than 2000 years of iron ore mining in Hesse. Today, the former Fortuna red ironstone mine is Hesse's first ERIH Anchor Point. Highlights such as the rope ride in the pit cage to a depth of 150 metres, the

First and foremost is the "Iron Heart of the Republic": the vast industrial complex and ERIH Anchor Point Dolní Vítkovice in Ostrava, the third largest city in the country, which in turn constitutes the [...] al cultural and educational hub is a dynamic process that is still ongoing. As early as 1836 - a first in the Habsburg Empire, to which the region belonged at the time - the blast furnaces of Dolni Vitkovice [...] a pioneering achievement: Following its extensive expansion and conversion in 1912-15, it was the first fully electrified mine in the Ostrava mining district. This was thanks to a brand new engine room

of the first multinational corporations and the largest zinc producer worldwide. The fascinating story of this rise is recounted in the Vieille Montagne Museum . Other centres of the zinc industry and zinc [...] The Sala silver mine , an ERIH site in Sweden, possibly represents the future of the European zinc industry. Although mining in Sweden's once richest source of silver, which was found in galena ore mixed

Anchor Point and World Heritage Site Grand Hornu . In Italy, the MuCa - Museum of the Shipbuilding Industry , also an ERIH Anchor Point, is worth a visit, as is Nikiszowiec in Poland, a suburb of Katowice [...] one of the most remarkable working-class estates in Europe. Not to forget the Ruhr area with its first workers' settlement Eisenheim in Oberhausen, the Margarethenhöhe in Essen and many more examples.