Former Kamen hard coal colliery shaft installation whose distinctive 51-metre red Dreibock Einstrebengerüst of 1966/67 over Schacht Grillo I survives as a listed industrial monument in the care of the Stiftung Industriedenkmalpflege und Geschichtskultur,
Zeche Monopol Schacht Grillo I/II was one of two shaft installations forming the Zeche Monopol in Kamen, originating in the Gewerkschaft Monopol founded in 1873 by Friedrich Grillo and Heinrich Grimberg, who named it after the Champagne brand Heidsieck Monopole. Sinking of Schacht 1 (later Grillo 1) began in 1873 in Kamen; the Carboniferous was reached at 345 m in 1875, but water inflows prevented production until 1879. The Gewerkschaft progressively passed to the Gelsenkirchener Bergwerks-AG from 1888, which from 1899 renamed the installations Grillo and Grimberg after the founders.
By 1965 peak annual output of 960,000 tonnes was achieved. In the late 1960s Schacht 1 was deepened and the surviving distinctive 51-metre Dreibock Einstrebengerüst in welded box construction was erected in 1966/67 along with the matching Maschinenhaus; this installation type is described as representing the last development phase of rope-support construction in the Ruhr. With the commissioning of the Neu-Monopol installation in Bergkamen, the Grillo 1/2 installation was closed in 1981.
Schacht 1 was backfilled in 2010. The headframe and machine house were listed in the Denkmalliste der Stadt Kamen in 2002. Since 2016 the ensemble has been managed by the Stiftung Industriedenkmalpflege und Geschichtskultur.
A restoration programme for the headframe costing 2.63 million euros was under way from May 2024 with completion targeted for mid-2025.
The history of Zeche Monopol begins with the founding of the Gewerkschaft Monopol in 1873 by the Lüdenscheid-born merchant and industrialist Friedrich Grillo (1825–1888) and the Bochum-based entrepreneur Heinrich Grimberg. According to a popular local account the colliery was named after the French Champagne brand Heidsieck Monopole, which the two men had shared the evening before the formal Konsolidation of the Grubenfelder before the Oberbergamt — though the accuracy of this account is not formally verified in the consulted sources. In 1873 sinking of Schacht Monopol 1 — the canonical Schacht I of this site — began in Kamen.
Progress was hampered from the outset by powerful water inflows; the Carboniferous was not reached until 1875 at 345 m depth, but production could not begin until 1879. A second shaft, Schacht Monopol 2, was begun eight years later. In 1890 a further shaft installation arose in Bergkamen as the Schächte 3 and 4, from 1899 renamed Grimberg.
From 1888 the Gelsenkirchener Bergwerks-AG (GBAG) began successively acquiring the Kuxe of the Gewerkschaft Monopol; by 1890 it held a majority. In the course of 1897 the GBAG acquired the remaining shares. In 1899 the new owners renamed the two founding Schachtanlagen: the Kamen installation became Grillo 1/2, after the founder Friedrich Grillo, and the Bergkamen installation became Grimberg 1/2, after Heinrich Grimberg.
In 1933 ownership of the Grillo/Grimberg group passed to the Essener Steinkohlebergwerke AG and in 1936 to the Harpener Bergbau-AG. After the Second World War, the Schachtanlagen Grillo 1/2/3 and Grimberg 1/2 passed to the newly founded Monopol Bergwerk AG. In the 1950s the Fränkische Energie GmbH from Nuremberg began acquiring Aktien in the Monopol Bergwerk AG.
In 1965 the highest annual output of the Grillo 1/2 installation — 960,000 tonnes — was reached. In the second half of the 1960s a decisive technical change was made: the colliery management decided to deepen Schacht 1 and convert to Großwagenförderung. As part of this programme the surviving 51-metre headframe — technically a zweigeschossiges Einstrebengerüst in geschweißter Kastenbauweise, in Dreibock arrangement with an appended Führungsgerüst — was erected over Schacht 1 in 1966/67.
The matching Maschinenhaus with its electric winding machine was also erected at this time. This headframe type is described by the Stiftung Industriedenkmalpflege as one of the few well-preserved examples of what it calls the 'letzte Entwicklungsphase von Seilstützkonstruktionen im Ruhrgebiet', and is now characterised as one of the last constructions of this young building type to have survived. Following the commissioning of the new Neu-Monopol installation in Bergkamen in 1981, the Schachtanlage Grillo 1/2 was closed.
Schacht 1 remained open: it first served as the central refrigeration installation for the extraction of Flöz Mausegatt, and from 2002 housed the central water-management installation for the Grubenfeld Monopol. In 2010 Schacht 1 was backfilled. Almost all other buildings on the Grillo 1/2 site were demolished; only the headframe, the Maschinenhaus, the Verwaltungsgebäude (Gründerzeit of 1910 and 1950s), and a small number of other structures were retained.
The Verwaltungsgebäude was converted into a Technologiezentrum as part of the IBA Emscher Park redevelopment; the surrounding site became the TechnoPark Kamen, a Gründerzentrum, and the Gartenstadt Seseke-Aue residential settlement of 277 Wohneinheiten. The Stiftung Industriedenkmalpflege und Geschichtskultur became the owner of the headframe and Maschinenhaus in 2016, rescuing them from a threatened demolition. The headframe was entered into the Denkmalliste der Stadt Kamen in 2002.
In 2024 the Stiftung received 2.63 million euros from Städtebauförderung funding by the federal and Land governments for a comprehensive structural restoration of the headframe. The restoration programme began in May 2024, with a full check of structural integrity, replacement of all defective steel elements with historically matching new ones, and repainting in the headframe's original oxidrot colour. Completion was targeted for mid-2025.
The Monopol2000 e.V. Förderverein manages access to the Maschinenhaus and its preserved electric winding machine.