Blast furnaces, red brick halls and an elevated conveyor gallery stand beside rows of brick houses.
What Vítkovice looks like
Rusted steel furnaces rise above green bushes at the front of the works. The sits on top of blast furnace no. 1 and measures 77.7 metres, and tall chimneys stand behind the furnaces.
An elevated conveyor gallery crosses a street beside the works. Where Ruská Street meets Výstavní, the brown steel gallery runs over the road, with a striped chimney behind it.
Red brick halls stand along streets near the works. The market hall has round windows set into its long brick wall, and a four-storey corner building with render and shopfronts stands on Halasova Street.
Brick houses on stand along a cobbled roadway, one and two storeys high. The brick is left exposed rather than rendered.
holds the Gothic Revival town hall of 1902. A Japanese pagoda tree stands in the square, with a red brick building behind it.
At the former , a bathhouse built in 1899 holds a hall of original mine engines. Its winding tower still holds the original mechanical compressors.
On Lidická Street, the Gable colony has 32 semi-detached houses in four rows. The two middle rows face each other across the street, and every house has a garden.
A hall converted from a gasholder, the sits east of the Bolt Tower. The mirrored glass facade of Svět techniky reflects the blast furnaces.
Shot in Vítkovice
The 2008 science fiction film Babylon A.D. shot at the Vítkovice steelworks. Ghost Recon Alpha, a 24-minute promo short for the video game Ghost Recon Future Soldier, used the whole Lower Vítkovice ironworks as its location.
Babylon A.D., 2008
The production shot at the Vítkovice steelworks. It does not name which part of the works was used. The photograph is a corner of the works, not a place the film is documented to have used. Street View
Csepel Works on Csepel island keeps raw brick-clad halls from about a century ago, with tall brick chimneys still standing. Those brick halls and chimneys make it the closest brick match to the Vítkovice works. Large rusted iron structures tower over some Csepel streets, so frame the brick halls at street level and keep those structures out of shot. Try searching raw brick halls now.
Landschaftspark Duisburg-Nord keeps three of the former Thyssen works' blast furnaces standing in a public park, with pig iron made on the site from 1901 to 1985. Rock climbers use some of its concrete walls, which a period shoot has to keep out of frame. Frame the furnaces tight and close to the ground, and keep the climbing walls out of shot. Try searching blast furnaces in a park now.
