UNESCO Industrial Heritage Sites Worth a Trip

UNESCO now lists the great temples of industry alongside cathedrals. Zollverein in Essen, a coal mine designed like a Bauhaus campus, draws over a million visitors a year.

Volklinger Hutte preserves a complete ironworks, and New Lanark remembers Robert Owens experiment in humane industry. Saltaire, Derwent Valley Mills, and the Blaenavon landscape mark where the factory system itself was invented.

Even the Volklinger halls and Landschaftspark Duisburg-Nord, a blast furnace park with divers in its gasometer, belong to the itinerary. Industrial tourism is now its own travel category, and the Ruhr its capital..