A very nice museum. Old steelworks and industrial plant powered by a water mill. For organized groups, machines are started, so if you organize a larger group, it is worth making an appointment :)
In 1782, castellan Jacek Jezierski of the Nowina coat of arms purchased the Maleniec estate, located near Końskie in the Old Polish Basin, from Prażmowski for half a million złoty. There were rich deposits of iron ore on their territory, while in neighboring Miedzierza a blast furnace was already in operation at that time. Jezierski intended to develop industrial production on the purchased estate, linking his plans to the project of the Four-Year Sejm, which passed a resolution to increase the size of the Polish army to 100,000. In 1784, the castellan dammed the waters of the Czarna River flowing through Maleniec and created a pond with an area of 16 ha that exists to this day. The water was to be a source of energy for the planned plants and workshops. With the help of water outlets, it later became - thanks to water wheels - a source of energy for the mill, sawmill and fryery built by Jezierski. In neighboring Kawęczyn, the castellan also built a blast furnace. Production activity in Maleniec was interrupted in 1794 due to military operations during the Kościuszko Uprising.
In 1824, the property was acquired by a former officer of Napoleon's army, Tadeusz Bocheński, who settled in Maleniec, introducing a number of innovations in local factories and significantly expanding production potential. The current building of the preserved plant, housing the museum, was erected around 1837 on the initiative of Bocheński, who additionally built a puddling shop and a rolling mill in neighboring Ruda Maleniecka.
On June 21, 1967, the complex was officially recognized as a technical monument and entered under item number 340 in the register of monuments of the then Kielce province. A year later, a group of students from the Faculty of Metallurgy of the Silesian University of Technology became interested in the abandoned facility. Their activities led to the signing of an agreement in 1970, under which the plant was transferred to the care of the university. Actions were initiated to save the facility, which included preparing documentation of the facility, repairing parts of the machines and equipment, and buildings.
Translated by Google •
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