An one-day driving to polish inland is worth the effort. In the middle of purely agricurtural landscape is hidden one nearly forgotten blast furnace of former Starachowice ironworks.
The works were founded in 1789 by Cistercian friary and in 1815 undertaken by the Polish kingdom. Thanks to large investments in the first part of 19th century Starachowice became the primary industrial centre of Poland. Iron ore mining in the surrounding forrests expanded as well.
The largest pig iron production took place during the second world war of course, blast furnace was active till 1968.


Uniqueness of this site built in 1899 survived till today in great compactness and good condition despite of fact being abandoned over 30 years. Until 2000 local enthusiats asked EU for help saving this industrial herritage and the result is newly opened Ekomuseum inside the very well and decent reconstructed ironworks area.

The blast furnace in Starachowice belongs without any doubts to the most precious ironworks sites in Europe.