Audioguides Ostrava

Ostrava was the industrial core of Czechoslovakia, the city where coal mining began in the 1760s and where the first blast furnace at the Vitkovice ironworks was lit in 1830. By the 20th century, the city was producing a significant portion of the steel and coal that kept first the Habsburg empire and then Czechoslovakia moving. Coal mining in the city stopped in 1994 and the main Vitkovice ironworks closed in 1998, which removed the economic purpose that had defined the city for 170 years and left an extraordinary collection of industrial infrastructure standing intact.

Dolni Vitkovice, the former ironworks complex, is now one of the most impressive industrial heritage sites in central Europe.

The blast furnaces, gas holder, and coking plant have been converted into a cultural venue that hosts the Colours of Ostrava music festival each July, one of the best music festivals in the Czech Republic, held inside and around structures that were producing steel until a few years before the stages arrived. The view from the top of the former gas holder, converted into an observation tower and restaurant, looks out across the city and the Silesian hills.