Regional iron ore mining museum at Herdorf-Sassenroth in the Landkreis Altenkirchen, opened in 1986 in a former school building, with a 15-metre steel lattice headframe and Maschinenhaus in the outdoor precinct, a Schaustollen under the museum, and a Mine
The Bergbaumuseum des Kreises Altenkirchen in the Herdorf district of Sassenroth, Rheinland-Pfalz, is a regional mining museum documenting 2,500 years of iron ore mining and metallurgy in the Siegerland and the Landkreis Altenkirchen. Herdorf was for much of its history the most important mining centre for coal and iron ore in the region. The museum is housed in a former school building at Schulstraße 13.
It opened in 1986 and documents the working life of miners underground, displaying individual stages of iron ore extraction and mining technology from approximately 1850, 1900, and 1930. The outdoor precinct contains a 15-metre steel lattice headframe (Stahlgitter-Förderturm) with an adjacent Maschinenhaus, a pump installation, and large-scale equipment from the former Siemens-Martin steelworks of the Charlottenhütte. Under the museum itself, a Schaustollen (exhibition mine) has been constructed in which visitors can see reconstructed gallery sections, a shaft, a Füllort, a Dynamitkammer, Gezähe, compressed-air drills, loading machines, and a mine locomotive.
A Mineralienkabinett presents the geology and typical finds of the Siegerländer Gruben. The museum is a station on the Geowanderweg 'Druidensteig' and forms part of the Geopark Westerwald-Lahn-Taunus. It is listed in the ERIH (European Route of Industrial Heritage).
Opening hours: Tuesday to Sunday, 10–12 and 14–17.
The city of Herdorf lies at the confluence of the Heller and Nister rivers in the northern Westerwald. The surrounding region was one of the most important centres of iron ore extraction and iron production in early modern and industrial Europe. Iron ore working in the Siegerland has a documented history of at least 2,500 years: the Kelten (Celts) were already smelting iron on the Siegerland ridges from around 500 BCE, as evidenced by an early La-Tène-period smelting furnace at Wilnsdorf-Obersdorf and over 140 smelting sites identified by the prehistorian Otto Krasa in the 1940s and 1950s.
The industrialisation of the Siegerland in the nineteenth century transformed the region into one of the most active iron ore districts in Germany. At the height of the Siegerländer Erzbergbau around 1900, approximately 15,000 miners were employed in the region. In 1853 alone, 660 individual Gruben were active. The density of activity made Herdorf and the Landkreis Altenkirchen among the most intensively worked parts of the greater Siegerland–Wieder Bergbaubezirk. In addition to iron ore, lead, copper, zinc, cobalt, and (rarely) silver were also extracted; gold was recovered in one mine at Siegen. Estimates suggest approximately 175 million tonnes of iron ore were extracted across the entire Siegerland.
From the mid-twentieth century the economic position of the Siegerland mines deteriorated sharply as lower-cost ores from other countries became competitive. The last Siegerland mine closed in 1965. Herdorf itself was also an important coal mining centre and hosted the Charlottenhütte steelworks, equipment from whose former Siemens-Martin furnaces is now displayed in the museum's outdoor precinct.
The museum project took shape in 1986, when the Landkreis Altenkirchen opened the Bergbaumuseum des Kreises Altenkirchen in the former school building at Schulstraße 13 in Herdorf-Sassenroth. The 15-metre Stahlgitter-Förderturm with its Maschinenhaus, erected in the outdoor area, creates the impression of a compact Zechenanlage and recalls the landscape of working mine installations that once surrounded Herdorf. The Schaustollen constructed under the museum shows reconstructed conditions from approximately 1850, 1900, and 1930: a Gangstrecke with steel Ausbau, German and Polish timber-frame (Türstockausbau) support patterns, a Schacht, Füllort, Dynamitkammer, Rettungsstelle, Signaltafeln, Gezähe, Pressluftbohrer, Lademaschinen, and a Grubenlokomotive. The Mineralienkabinett presents the geology of the Siegerland ore-bearing strata and exhibits finds from the regional mines. A specialist room for children's programmes is provided, and mineral excursions and Kindergeburtstag events are offered. The museum issues special and rotating exhibitions alongside its permanent presentation. It is open Tuesday to Sunday, 10:00–12:00 and 14:00–17:00, and is also a Etappenziel (waypoint) of the Geowanderweg 'Druidensteig'. The institution is part of the ERIH network and of the Geopark Westerwald-Lahn-Taunus.