With the dawn of the ‘age of steam and electricity’ Lower Silesia soon underwent an economic transformation that transformed the region into one of the most important industrial centres of this part of Europe. Already in the first half of the 19th century mining, metallurgy and production in china and textile factories developed dynamically. All this happened thanks to visionary entrepreneurs such as Carl Tielsch, Count Friedrich Wilhelm von Reden, or Carl Krister (known as ‘Silesian Rockefeller’) .

The recently prepared Map of Technical Monuments recognises the history of industrial development in the region by collecting the most valuable technical objects from Lower Silesia. Which of them will be worth paying attention to when you plan your ‘following the footsteps of history’ trip?

Some of the places to choose from are the Gold Mine in Zloty Stok in which two drifts from the over 300 km network of mine corridors and sidewalks are open to tourists and the Old Mine in Walbrzych with the modern exhibition space of the Museum of Technology and Industry or the European Centre of Unique Ceramics.

In Julia Smelter, in turn, the guests can admire the manual process of
producing crystal glass dishes and in the historical paper mill in Duszniki-Zdroj – get to know both history and traditional methods of paper making.

The Railway Museum in Silesia was established in the historic locomotive depot in Jaworzyna Slaska. The collection consists of a total of over 140 railway vehicles from the end of the 19th century to the 1970s. The Automotive Museum at Topacz Castle in Sleza, where visitors can see the largest collection of antique cars and motorbikes in Lower
Silesia, boasts of rich and interesting collections close to Wroclaw.

The project is realised jointly by the Silesian Industrial Heritage Protection Foundation
and the Marshal’s Office. More information on mapazabytkow.pl.