Blast furnace in Červeňany

Gemer has long been called the Iron heart of Hungary. The remains of blast furnaces also document the advanced technology of metallurgy on Gemer. A perfect example is the blast furnace in Červeňany, one of the most important mining monuments in Gemer and part of the European iron road.

This once 13-meter-high furnace built from quarried stone processed up to 10,000 tons of ore per year. Between 1872 and 1879, over 2,000 tons of pig iron were produced here every year. During its entire existence, the furnace produced 675.5 thousand tons of pig iron, of which more than 10 thousand tons were exported to Austria and the rest was sold on the domestic Hungarian market. The furnace was in operation from 1871 to 1903, when production was stopped due to the economic crisis in Hungary.

In 1970, the blast furnace was restored by the Slovak Technical Museum. Today, the surroundings of this cultural monument have been improved, there are benches and an information board describing the history of the iron industry in Slovakia. You will find it in the settlement of Červeňany (belonging to the municipality of Sirk) near the main road connecting Hnúšťa with Jelšava.