'Mount' Bochum

Today the report from Querenburg (the stadtteil where we live--the name means `crosstown 'or maybe `Queer town' as far as I can make out) concerns our visit (on Sept. 18) to what was the heart of the Ruhr Gebiet  the memory  of coal mining and steel making. This is the Bergbau museum.  Here is Judith at the door--rather fine metalwork.The tower once hauled coal out of `shacht 12'--pit 12 . It rises to 70 metres above the museum. It was built in 1944 (!) which I find surprising.

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This is a view from the top. Unfortunately it looks much the same in all directions. Within about 40

k m  radius there  are 5-7 million people-all ready to spend time waiting at pedestrian lights!

This model gives insight into the density of mines in the Bochum area at its peak. Some went as deep as 2km before they were exhausted.

Whoops --left it out  --this picture gives a sense of the industrial strength -picture person excepted

We took the elevator except for the last two or three levels.This next picture shows the wheel at the top that was used we think to lift the coal.

As you enter there is this collection of industrial memory or to the men who worked there.

Here is an image  of saint barbara who was the patron saint of the miners.The tradition is very old.

These are the arms of the miners. They are found in the coats of arms of the mining landes.

Down in the mine

A boring machine

An artist's impression of the `good old days'

Switch boxes made to last---see also the shape of the drift

Some good stuff from underground

This next is a room full of exquisite gifts made from silver and gold. They date back to the fifteenth century and were commissioned by wealthy  mine owners to various royalty and politicians.

Finally here are some more pictures that are too evocative to omit. We really do seem sometimes to be living in the centre of the world. the trouble is that we are peering through the language darkly!

A view above from the tower looking towards the railway that might have served the mine.

A look from the top in another direction towards a local (nuclear) power station.Ecological progress--Judith says. 

Bye for now.