Terres Rouges is a large industrial complex formerly operated by the Arbed Steel Works group.
History
The Terres Rouges (translated as 'Red Earth') area of Luxembourg has had a long history of iron mining and steel production. From as early as 1843 August Metz of Berbourg was granted permission to produce ore in the region. This led to the development of 4 blast furnaces which were completed in 1871. The facility in question for this report first began production in 1872. In 1911 several independent steel manufacturers merged to form ARBED who then went on to establish one of the world’s biggest and most modern blast furnaces on the site on the 10th of June 1965. ARBED was then Europe's third biggest steel manufacturer, production reached it's peak in 1974. From them on specific reference to the site dwindles, although ARBED encountered economic difficulties towards the end of the 90s as the areas raw materials began to dry up. This fact, combined with paperwork in the site dated from around the end of the 80s provides some indication as to when the site was abandoned.
The Explore
The site appears to separated into 2 main areas. Unfortunately, since I'm not really an 'industrialist' I can't provide accurate details of what each area did. From a layman's perspective it seemed the first area (as organised below) consisted of a long building which may have contained various conveyor belts and equipment used to deal with the raw materials being extracted, while the second facility, located nearby but not attached to the first, appeared to be more concerned with the refining of materials.
Access is extremely easy in both cases and it is simply a case of boldly walking onto the site. The second area does seem to have some kind of active occupation in some of the buildings, but not the main one, and appears to be used as parking for a company called 'LuxControl', while some of the buildings also appeared to be occupied by workers. Mostly however they did not seem bothered with our presence, in fact we even wandered past a truck driving past the entrance to the second area and were not stopped/questioned despite being beyond the perimeter gate.
The site really had a lot of offer, both cramped factory areas crammed with pipes and large open internal vistas from high up vantage points. Well worth a visit if travelling through Luxembourg. We visited the site over two days, each time for several hours, but if you want to see it all I'd definitely recommend clearing your calender for at least a whole day, if not two.
The Pictures - Area 1
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Second Area
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History
The Terres Rouges (translated as 'Red Earth') area of Luxembourg has had a long history of iron mining and steel production. From as early as 1843 August Metz of Berbourg was granted permission to produce ore in the region. This led to the development of 4 blast furnaces which were completed in 1871. The facility in question for this report first began production in 1872. In 1911 several independent steel manufacturers merged to form ARBED who then went on to establish one of the world’s biggest and most modern blast furnaces on the site on the 10th of June 1965. ARBED was then Europe's third biggest steel manufacturer, production reached it's peak in 1974. From them on specific reference to the site dwindles, although ARBED encountered economic difficulties towards the end of the 90s as the areas raw materials began to dry up. This fact, combined with paperwork in the site dated from around the end of the 80s provides some indication as to when the site was abandoned.
The Explore
The site appears to separated into 2 main areas. Unfortunately, since I'm not really an 'industrialist' I can't provide accurate details of what each area did. From a layman's perspective it seemed the first area (as organised below) consisted of a long building which may have contained various conveyor belts and equipment used to deal with the raw materials being extracted, while the second facility, located nearby but not attached to the first, appeared to be more concerned with the refining of materials.
Access is extremely easy in both cases and it is simply a case of boldly walking onto the site. The second area does seem to have some kind of active occupation in some of the buildings, but not the main one, and appears to be used as parking for a company called 'LuxControl', while some of the buildings also appeared to be occupied by workers. Mostly however they did not seem bothered with our presence, in fact we even wandered past a truck driving past the entrance to the second area and were not stopped/questioned despite being beyond the perimeter gate.
The site really had a lot of offer, both cramped factory areas crammed with pipes and large open internal vistas from high up vantage points. Well worth a visit if travelling through Luxembourg. We visited the site over two days, each time for several hours, but if you want to see it all I'd definitely recommend clearing your calender for at least a whole day, if not two.
The Pictures - Area 1
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Second Area
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