Massa - Ancient
Foundry
Massa Museum of the National Technical Museum, Ancient Foundry,
Ironworks
There are only three industrial heritage sites of this type of
ancient blast furnace in Europe. Alongside it there are a
reconstructed 18th-century ironworks and the Massa Museum
introducing its history. There is an open-air industrial museum
nearby.
Hungary's earliest industrial heritage is the charcoal-burning
blast furnace at Újmassa, commonly known as the 'Ancient Foundry'
(oskohó). Frigyes Fazola had it built in 1813. Over the course of
half a century crude iron was produced there which was then
transported to the nearby forge for further processing.
Next to the foundry is the Massa Museum which shows the main stages
of the hundred-years history of the Diósgyor-Hámor Ironworks
(1770-1870) through original documents and the tools and products
that were made and used there. The original plant of the ironworks
and its equipment can be seen through working models and
maquettes.
In the forge reconstructed in 1979 using the 18th-century drawings,
the iron hammer and bellows driven by a waterwheel and the
tempering furnace conjure up the atmosphere of iron procesing of
the time. The maquette of the Ómassa foundry built in 1772 along
with the structural drawing of the building and the casting hall
are also on display at the museum.
In the open-air exhibition opposite the museum for the history of
industry, there are a few items of machinery employed in iron
metallurgy in the 19th and 20th centuries, as well as some tools
and remaining objects from the Miskolc-Lyukóbánya mining works that
closed down in 2004.