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05. 01. 12. - 12:00

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05. 01. 12. - 12:00

Paris Eiffel Tower furnace open to tourists

Romanian Times

A Romanian blast furnace, famous for having made the cast iron needed to make several key elements of the Paris Eiffel Tower, will be turned into a tourist attraction, Agerpres reports.

The blast furnace from the village of Govajdie, in western Hunedoara county, will be refurbished and turned into a tourist attraction in form of a project funded by a non-repayable grant of 1.5 million Euros.

The project will be financed under the Regional Operational Programme.

Mayor Ioan Bulbucan said: "We plan to start the furnace refurbishment works this spring and wrap them up in the autumn. The ceiling of the shed where the blast furnace is located will be repaired, the foundations will be repaired and the walls will be reinforced. Furthermore, the old Govajdie railway station will be restored based on the original model from the year 1800."

An Iron Museum will also be opened to host 3D-images of the blast furnace at various times of its existence.

The tourists interested in seeing the sites will be taken to Govajdie by a narrow-gauge train. They will visit the medieval Corvin Castle in Hunedoara, Ghelari Orthodox Cathedral, an iron mine, the furnace and the Iron Museum.

The Govajdie blast furnace was commissioned in 1806, being the first such furnace in the world to use a continuous cast iron production process. The furnace was built at Ghelari since it was close to the iron ore deposits in the Poiana Rusca mountains.

The furnace worked at utmost capacity between 1871 and 1889. The quality of the iron cast made there prompted its use for manufacturing several key elements of the Eiffel Tower in Paris.

After the Hunedoara Iron Works opened, the furnace gradually grew derelict, with the last repair being carried out during World War One. While the shed ceiling and walls have become dilapidated, the furnace itself has kept in good condition.

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