The Old Ironworks site is one of the few authentic industrial complexes in the country dating from the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
renewal
It is located inside the operating SIJ Ravne steelworks, in the immediate vicinity of the town centre of Ravne na Koroškem. It consists of the former shrinking, forging and smithy building of the Štauharije, the former residential building of the Personal with laundry, the Laboratory and the Lubricants Warehouse.
The municipality of Ravne na Koroškem, in cooperation with various stakeholders, including ZVKDS OE Maribor, has applied for a project to renovate the building to: "Call for proposals for the co-financing of projects for the sustainable restoration and revitalisation of cultural monuments owned by municipalities and the integration of cultural experiences in Slovenian tourism from the funds for the implementation of the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (code JR-NOO-KS 2022-25)"called by the Ministry of Culture in 2022. The project was selected and the total investment amounted to € 1,655,225.95.
Stauharia, The former forge was built in the middle of the First World War for the Austrian Navy. Inside, you can see a varied selection of industrial machinery and tools, from a turnip, a locomotive, a crane to various hammers and electric arc furnaces. The restoration, which has minimally affected the material substance of the monument, has created a new communication route and an event space that is friendly to people with reduced mobility.
Part of the building also houses the updated Mater fabrika exhibition, an exhibition about the Ravne Ironworks, a steel company with a centuries-old tradition that flourished after the Second World War, and with it the development of the town and the region.
The building was completely flooded in the August 2023 floods.
The laboratory included structural rehabilitation and conservation restoration of the shell of the building. The building will house a conservation and restoration workshop, a museum library and a multi-purpose space for cultural and educational events. The aim is to create a meeting point for locals, tourists and experts from various disciplines.
The inner courtyard has also been renovated to create a new event space and a room where certain machinery and equipment is installed.
The comprehensive restoration of the site is not only about protecting the immovable cultural heritage, but also about bringing together and presenting the movable and intangible cultural heritage. The technical heritage, particularly the means of production, which also receives a great deal of attention in the Western world, is an important element here, with the aim of revitalising brownfield sites and thus enabling new development and a new quality of life. Cultural heritage has become an important factor in tourism development.
The main purpose of the project was to create a multifunctional space of creativity, knowledge and experience based on the rich cultural heritage of the iron and steel industry and the related working culture in Ravenna and the wider Mežiška dolina valley, which will become a focal point for the development of the local potentials of Ravenna and the wider region, by investing in the renovation and development of the contents of the Old Ironworks museum area.
On the one hand, the space will enable the presentation, research and education about the iron heritage in Carinthia, but at the same time it will also open up space for local stakeholders, who will be offered a space for creativity, cultural and entrepreneurial networking and the organisation of their own or external events in the premises of the Old Ironworks. The renovated Old Ironworks is an example of good practice in the sustainable restoration of industrial heritage and an exemplary collaboration between the heritage service, the local environment and the competent museum organisation.
By preserving, restoring and revitalising the site, it maintains the rich industrial heritage of the Mežiška Valley, which is more than four hundred years old, and provides visitors with modern and attractive museum exhibitions that bring them into contact with the steel heritage that has shaped the population of the entire Carinthian region.
The renovation of the Staffal and Laundry buildings, for which the municipality of Ravne na Koroškem was awarded €1 million in a call for tenders by the Ministry of Culture, is also planned. The renovation aims to complete the overall transformation of the Old Ironworks site into a modern centre, and to modernise and fit out the premises of the Museum of Ravne na Koroškem, which is housed in the Personal building.
