Surviving Malakow shaft building and steel headframe of the former Oranje-Nassau I mine, now the Mijnmonument Oranje-Nassau I, a rijksmonument open monthly to visitors.
The Mijnmonument Oranje-Nassau I in Heerlen is the surviving complex of the shaft building of Schacht I and the steel headframe of Schacht II of the former Oranje-Nassau I mine, along with the original 1897 winding machine in its winding machine house. The brick shaft building is of the Malakow type with bastioned façades, corner turrets in neo-Romanesque style, and originates from around 1897; this building type has its origins in the Ruhr and Aachen coalfields and is exceptionally rare in the Netherlands. The steel open headframe of Schacht II belongs to a type developed around 1900 in the Saarland.
Between 1979 and 1981 the shaft building of Schacht I was carefully dismantled and rebuilt around the headframe of Schacht II. The complex is listed as a rijksmonument and ranks in the top-100 monuments of the Netherlands. From 2005 to 2022 it served as the sole home of the Nederlands Mijnmuseum; since the opening of the new main museum in the Kneepkens building in May 2022, it continues as a satellite location, the Mijnmonument Oranje-Nassau I, opened monthly for public visits including demonstrations of the original working winding machine.
The shaft and winding machine buildings of the Oranje-Nassau I mine at Heerlen are the only surviving above-ground mine structures of industrial scale in the Netherlands. When the mine closed on 31 December 1974, virtually all Dutch mine surface structures were demolished as part of the Van zwart naar groen (From black to green) policy, which aimed to combat unemployment and make the region attractive for new economic activity. The shaft and winding machine buildings of Oranje-Nassau I were an exception, preserved and listed as a rijksmonument.
The brick shaft building, the so-called Malakow-toren, has a square ground plan, rises two storeys, and is flat-roofed. Its façades are divided by pilasters into three bays, with a broad corbelled brick cornice at the top, corner turrets with battlements, and paired arched niches or windows on each storey. The form derives from the Malakoff towers common in mid-nineteenth century mines of the Ruhr and Aachen coalfields, where a fortified-looking brick shell was built around the winding mechanism to protect it. By the time of Oranje-Nassau I's construction this type had largely been superseded by open steel headframes, making this building architecturally and historically exceptional. The original structure stood over Schacht I. Between 1979 and 1981 it was carefully dismantled brick by brick and re-erected around the open steel headframe of Schacht II, which stands approximately 470 metres above the now-sealed shaft.
The open steel headframe of Schacht II belongs to the type developed around 1900 in the Saarland and was somewhat reinforced in later decades. The winding machine building for Schacht II matches the architectural treatment of the Malakow building and contains the original steam-powered winding machine manufactured in 1897 by A. Mehler in Aachen. This machine was later converted to operate on compressed air, and its original cable drum was replaced by a Koeppe sheave; it nevertheless survives in nearly original condition and is the last working winding machine of its type in the Netherlands. The Rijksdienst voor het Cultureel Erfgoed listing notes the winding machine, the Malakow building, and the Saarland-type headframe as together constituting a complex of exceptional cultural-historical, architectural, and industrial-archaeological value.
The Nederlands Mijnmuseum (initially the Nationaal Mijnmuseum) opened at this location on 7 November 2005, occupying the three floors of the shaft building around the sealed Schacht II, with the collection of mining objects and the winding machine on display. On 1 May 2022 the museum opened a new main location in the former Kneepkens department store in the centre of Heerlen. Since that date the shaft and winding machine building — now formally designated the Mijnmonument Oranje-Nassau I — has continued as a satellite location of the Nederlands Mijnmuseum, opened on the first weekend of each month and on Open Monumentendag for guided visits, winding machine demonstrations, lectures, and thematic events.
