(C) Daily Kos
This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered.
. . . . . . . . . .



Street Prophets Friday: Dolní Vítkovice [1]

['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.']

Date: 2023-09-01

I'm back to my usual, calm, contemplative, little Friday slide-show. This week there are a lot of photos taken in the rain, often with a wet lens, but they're appropriate for the weather we've been having over here in the Liver of Europe. We're back to the cool, wet weather as we begin gearing up for the start of the school year, while this summer, on a soggy day, we visited a monumental industrial site in northern Moravia. The fires in the furnace at Dolní Vitkovice [link to the site's official website in English] are cold, but the whole area is definitely worth a visit.

Won't you join me?

Heh, I felt just like Mr Rogers with that intro. Just gimme a sec to zip up my sweater …

Dolní Vítkovice

Here, have some slightly wonky English from their site:

Dolní Vitkovice … served for a black coal mining and production of raw steel between the years 1828 and 1998. It was in 1828 when Rudolf I. of Bohemia, the archbishop of Olomouc, ordered that the metallurgical plant be established in Vitkovice. This was the start of the unique place for heavy industrial production which until then was unprecedented in Europe. The industrial giant has now changed into no less unique educational, cultural, and social center with reach beyond the country borders.

It was a very rainy day for a visit to an industrial site. If someone had installed a few neon lights and large video-billboards I'd have felt even more like I was walking through a location for a cyberpunk movie, maybe something like Blade Runner.

We had remarkably good timing on our visit— despite the rain, perhaps because of the rain. Just enough spots were open for tickets to visit the Bolt Tower, which is the name of the towering main blast furnace.

Atop of which is three stories of charming cafe with a view.

We hurried up to the top to take advantage of our window of opportunity and the Bolt Cafe voucher for 100 CZK that our tickets included. That and a half hour of seating time that we probably stretched into over an hour meant Marko got a nice cup of cappuccino with a shot of Bailey's for 7 CZK. That's around 25 cents American. I suppose $4.25 is probably cheap these days for a hot beverage stateside. I was just there a month or so ago, why didn’t I pay attention? Anyway, about the view from up there …

We worked out way back down to ground level slowly, following the catwalks and giving ourselves time to explore.

No, that dizzying stairway atop a pipe leading down to the Dust Filter was not open to the public

Care to peek through the portal?

It looks right down into the smelting chamber of the blast furnace itself. Quite theatrically lit in red.

Pressure valve?

And what are these odd containers?

Ah! they serve as chambers to preheat the air being blasted into the furnace.

Not as exciting as that crazy stairway, but you can walk out to the Dust Filter

From the Dust Filter looking back at the Bolt Tower from under that pipe. Note the inclined rail for bringing raw materials up into the furnace

a view looking down the inclined railway

Looking up into the chamber

At the bottom. Nature finds a way. The last raw iron was smelted here in 1998.

A channel for the slag from the furnace

Several meters deep— the mess on the floor of the blast furnace chamber.

The ring of massive burners that fired this brute up to 2000 degrees Celsius.

Somebody obviously puts on demonstrations of smelting iron from ore here.

And they're running around unprotected at the moment.

There was still raw iron in the tapping channels

Looking back at Bolt Tower. Little train in the foreground carries part of the ceremonial final tapping of iron from the furnace.

And there was time to explore a bit more of the area

Interesting walkway

Yes, that's a mining elevator back there on the left. The furnace site came with its own coal mine.

Railcar cafe— closed today.

What? this some kind of Indian Motorcycles exhibit or dealership? Lots of stuff moving into the buildings on this site.

Back around the Railcar ...

Thanks for stopping by!

This is an open thread.

[END]
---
[1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/9/1/2190949/-Street-Prophets-Friday-Doln-V-tkovice

Published and (C) by Daily Kos
Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified.

via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds:
gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/