Live from the cultural routes: the magical mountain. Le Jeudi, August 2009.



Meeting in Leoben. Photo MTP.


The sites of the iron industry have, in many European countries, become an industrial heritage where the history of the people is as important as that of the methods. In the valley of Austrian Styria, as along the length of the Central European Iron Route (for some years under the aegis of the Cultural Routes of the Council of Europe), engineers and historians recount their shared memory.






The spirit of the mountain

Legend has it that it was in the Präbichl Pass, situated at an altitude of more than 1,200 metres, that the “Erzberg”, the mountain of ore, was discovered in 712, thanks to a water spirit. Captured by the mountain dwellers, he asked to be freed on these terms:

„ Ein goldener Fuss –
doch Gold bald schwinden muss!
Ein silbernes Herz –
Die Zeit verzehrts.
Ein eiserner Hut hält lang und gut!
Drum wählet klug,
so habt ihr genug!“

And he is said to have added: „ Baut diesen Berg ab, er wird euch mehr Eisen geben, als ihr samt euren Nachkommen braucht!“

This “iron cap”, true mountain magic, is the largest open iron quarry in central Europe. From the craft industry to the iron industry – which today produces the long rails for high-speed trains – the “Steirische Eisenstrasse” which climbs the slopes of the mountain recounts the key points of a history more than seven hundred years old and presents an imposing cultural landscape.

The route starts in Leoben whose port on the Mur, the Waasenbrücke, built in 1894, is symbolic of the birth of metal-based architecture. Following this is the industrial museum at Donawitz where the history of the mine and of the modern industry is highlighted. Next, at Trofaiach there is the largest charcoal furnace on the continent and around Vordernberg are situated fourteen blast furnace and forge sites built since the beginning of the nineteenth century (some of which still have all the original equipment). The actual route takes into account the implementation of hydraulic power, the preparation of charcoal, collections of tools and the lives, stories and songs of the miners, as well as decorative pieces of work such as the wells covered with wrought iron grills dating back to the baroque period which have pride of place in the village square.



A cross-border region

If the great political history is not at the heart of the work being carried out developing this route, it is nevertheless a fact that the invasions, alliances, changing borders and dominant empires form an important background to this route. Following the rule of the dukes of Babenberg, Styria found itself caught between Bavarian and Hungarian domination. From the end of the thirteenth century, it was shaped by the Hapsburgs. It confronted the Ottoman Empire and the Counter-Reformation marked its mentality and architecture. German liberalism and the demands of the Slovene minorities also had an effect on this region at the end of the nineteenth century.

Gerhard Sperl, the true instigator of the Austrian route, took into account this shifting cross-border region, recently brought together within a unified Europe. This retired steel engineer, as passionate about the Etruscan metalwork of the island of Elba as about new technology, convinced those in charge of sites in neighbouring countries experiencing a reconsideration of industrial heritage of the benefits of working together. In Romania and Poland the large obsolete state industrial complexes are currently undergoing a phase of reconversion to more specified production and ‘memory tourism’. From Miskolc in Hungary to Kosice in Slovakia, from Ravne in Slovenia to Reşiţa in Romania and, if one includes Gdansk, the symbolic city, other, often cross-border, routes have been put into place and have received the ‘mention’ of the Council of Europe.



A recent sign of permanent dialogue, on 7th August all the partners came together in the Dorfmuseum in Zalaegerszeg, a Hungarian town near three borders, to inaugurate an exhibition on Slovene iron heritage. The legend of the mountain spirit appears to have thus given new hope to efforts in local development and tourism in central Europe, on the Iron Route!
Translation into english by Lorna Slinger of the Article issued in Le Jeudi 13 August 2009.


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