Lusa­t­ian Indus­trial Her­itage ENERGY Route

Head for the fac­tory on your day off: old open­cast min­ing machines are trans­formed into piers, while the tall stair­wells of for­mer bri­quette fac­to­ries pro­vide far-reach­ing views

There are things here to make even the tallest feel tiny. For exam­ple, a colos­sal over­bur­den con­veyor bridge, resem­bling a hor­i­zon­tal Eif­fel Tower, from which the adven­tur­ous can abseil. Or for­mer power sta­tions that have been con­verted into muse­ums, or the tow­ers of old bri­quette fac­to­ries and cok­ing plants that now offer far-reach­ing views across the Lusa­t­ian Lake­land. While these build­ings and machines may no longer ful­fil their orig­i­nal func­tions, they keep alive the mem­ory of an indus­try that will soon be com­pletely gone.

These fas­ci­nat­ing reminders of the past can be explored on the Lusa­t­ian Indus­trial Her­itage ENERGY Route. Each of them tells the story of human endeav­ours in power gen­er­a­tion in the region, while also explain­ing the trans­for­ma­tion from open­cast min­ing to Lusa­t­ian Lake­land.

Set­ting course for new shores

Nowhere is this process more evi­dent than in the town of Grossräschen, which gives its name to the nearby lake. Look­ing across the shim­mer­ing water, it is hard to believe that just 20 years ago the area looked like a scene from the apoc­a­lypse. At the end of the last road and houses, the town gave way to the dusty desert of an open­cast mine, from which 342 mil­lion tonnes of lig­nite were extracted. Today, the waters of Lake Grossräschen cover the cav­ernous hole like a heal­ing plas­ter.

The IBA SEE Inter­na­tional Build­ing Exhi­bi­tion, which took place from 2000 to 2010, pro­vided new ideas for Grossräschen. The IBA Ter­races vis­i­tors cen­tre and a pier made from the last large-scale min­ing equip­ment used here were built on the shores of the lake dur­ing this period. The pier pro­vides the sym­bolic link between the old and the new land­scapes. The IBA Ter­races vis­i­tor cen­tre is the ideal start­ing point for tours through this rein­vented region.

The world’s largest machine

Any­one who fan­cies a bird’s-eye view should head to Lichter­feld in Bran­den­burg’s south, where a mighty giant called F60 rests. The F stands for Förderbrücke, or over­bur­den con­veyor bridge, and this is the biggest mov­able machine in the world. The sight of this ‘hor­i­zon­tal Eif­fel Tower’ will leave you speech­less. The struc­ture weighs 11,000 tonnes and was used to carry away rock and sand exca­vated from above the coal seams. Today, there are peo­ple in bright hel­mets climb­ing around this 500 metre long steel colos­sus, known as the F60 vis­i­tor mine. Adven­tur­ous types also have the oppor­tu­nity to abseil down the giant struc­ture.

From the high­est heights to deep down below

And that’s not the only way to get the adren­a­line pump­ing. How about a spec­tac­u­lar ride in an off-road vehi­cle into the depths of an active open­cast mine? A tour of the Wel­zow-Süd open­cast mine pro­vides plenty of oppor­tu­ni­ties to get up close to one of these gigan­tic machines. The machin­ery at Europe’s largest bri­quette fac­tory in Doms­dorf is rarely in action these days, but vis­i­tors to the Louise bri­quette fac­tory can still expe­ri­ence indus­trial her­itage at close hand. The fac­tory is now a museum, pow­ered by the energy of its for­mer employ­ees. At least once a year, the old bri­quette presses are turned on for the Steam Days event, when the old ‘Louise’, built in 1882, comes huff­ing and puff­ing back to life.

The smell of lig­nite lingers in the Knap­pen­rode Energy Fac­tory in Sax­ony due to the coal dust that still sticks to the his­toric fac­tory halls. The for­mer bri­quette fac­tory, con­structed entirely from red brick, tow­ers above the pine for­est. Today, the build­ing is a seven-storey high museum that tells the story of open­cast lig­nite min­ing and the peo­ple who worked there. From the top of the stair tower there are mag­nif­i­cent views over the chang­ing land­scape of the Lusa­t­ian Lake­land. And because the Energy Fac­tory is such a unique reminder of coal pro­cess­ing in Upper Lusa­tia, the per­ma­nent exhi­bi­tion inside will be even larger from next year onwards. There’s plenty to dis­cover out­side too, includ­ing two huge bucket-wheel exca­va­tors that once dug their way through the coal seams. Or how about a ride on a pump trol­ley? This is, quite lit­er­ally, indus­trial her­itage at your fin­ger­tips. Explore the exten­sive area around the Energy Fac­tory on the for­mer mine rail­way using mus­cle power only.

Stops along the ENERGY Route

The range of tourist facil­i­ties offered at these indus­trial her­itage sites varies widely. To pro­vide a rough ori­en­ta­tion, the sights have been cat­e­gorised as fol­lows:

High­lights – Tourist attrac­tions offer­ing a full range of ser­vices and facil­i­ties
Rec­om­men­da­tions – Excit­ing sights that offer a slightly more lim­ited range of ser­vices
Insider tips – Hid­den gems; guided tours, some by arrange­ment only

• High­lights: F60 vis­i­tor mine, IBA Ter­races vis­i­tor cen­tre, Knap­pen­rode Energy Fac­tory, Bran­den­burg State Museum of Mod­ern Art at Dieselkraftwerk Cot­tbus
• Rec­om­men­da­tions: Wel­zow-Süd open­cast mine, Schwarze Pumpe power sta­tion, Kraftwerk Plessa power sta­tion, Louise bri­quette fac­tory
• Insider tips: Lauch­ham­mer bio tow­ers, Marga gar­den city, Mar­garethenhütte elec­tro­ce­ram­ics museum