Marked by iron
Today, only a small ensemble around two remaining listed blast furnaces bears witness to the “Neunkirchen Iron Age”. Even Goethe, who traveled the Saar, was impressed at the time. He mocked “the terrible whistling and whistling of the wind current, which, raging into the molten ore, deafens the ears and confuses the senses”. In the early 1980s, the whistling and whining came to an end and the 400-year iron age was over. The city made a radical new beginning, completely redesigned its city center, built a large shopping center, commercial settlements and attractive cultural and entertainment offerings.
The legacy today
This includes the rededication of the old smelter area into a leisure and gastronomic meeting place. In addition to a cinema and restaurants, there are plenty of concerts, cabaret and literary events in the blower hall and in the “Stummschen Reithalle”, as well as high-profile exhibitions in the municipal gallery and in the ceramics museum KKM in the KULT. From the ironworks area, the signposted ironworks trail leads through park-like grounds to the relics of the coal and steel era.
