Écomusée des mines de fer de Lorraine, Mining museum in Aumetz and Neufchef, France
The Écomusée des mines de fer de Lorraine is a mining museum with two locations in Aumetz and Neufchef that displays underground shafts and equipment from iron extraction. The site shows machinery and tools that explain how miners worked below ground to extract iron ore.
In 1983 the commune of Neufchef decided to create a museum of Lorraine iron mines as the basin's working mines closed one after another from 1970. The two-site complex, at Neufchef and Aumetz, opened on 30 June 1989. It holds the Musée de France label and belongs to the Grands sites de Moselle network.
At Neufchef, a guide who is a former miner leads the 1.5 km underground route through three periods: the old mine, the compressed-air mine and the modern mine. A reconstructed room shows miners' social and family life in the 1950s, and a film presents the history of Lorraine iron mining.
Both sites are reachable by car or public transport, with the main entrance in Aumetz. Visitors should wear comfortable shoes since the underground passages are uneven and the temperature below ground stays cool.
The Aumetz headframe and its winding-engine building were listed as monuments historiques on 4 April 1995. The 35-metre platform above the shaft looks over the Pays-Haut, its mining estates and the Maginot Line fortifications. The site also holds collections on shaft mining, mining explosives and the power supply of the mines.
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