Blast Furnace Museum Radwerk IV

The Radwerk IV is the largest iron historical sight along the EISENSTRASSE between Leoben and Steyr and is the only fully equipped charcoal blast furnace in Austria. Tourists and professionals from all over the world visit this magnificent testimony to historic pig iron mining.

Radwerke were called blast furnace systems, in which a water wheel drove the blower for combustion air.

In Vordernberg there were 14 wheel works along the stream.

Radwerk IV, built in 1846 on the site of an old facility in a monumental, classicist style, was listed as a monument in 1928 after the shutdown in 1911 due to its importance in the history of iron. After repair work in 1959 it was made accessible to the public as a blast furnace and iron museum.

The blast furnace museum also includes the museum of the Alpine Donawitz History Club, which vividly describes steel production in Donawitz from the past to the present.