LWL Industrial Museum - Zeche Zollern is the world's most beautiful coal mine. The colliery was…read morebuilt between 1898 and 1904 as a prestigious sign to competitors that it was the leading mining company on the market. At first sight, with the palatial redbrick facades stylish Art Nouveau elements, the beautiful buildings dotted around a grassy square are more reminiscent of an aristocratic residence than a coal mine. By 1969, following the crisis in the coal industry, the Zollern colliery was closed for good. Shortly before excavators arrived on the site to demolish the buildings the state conservation officer saved the colliery from destruction by listing it. Thus the Zollern colliery became the first industrial building in Germany to be awarded the status of a monument. In 1981 the LWL integrated Zollern into its State Museum of Industrial Heritage. The central machine building, designed by Berlin Jugendstil architect Bruno Möhring, is iconic. The machine hall's original 100-year-old conveyers, converters and compressors are an exhilarating relic of the steam age. The various sections of the exhibition take you into a world of harsh working conditions and the stories of the men and women who worked in coal mining during the 20th century. A subterranean gallery in the machine building features beautiful and creepy art installations.

A unique site in that it was meant to impress rather than only serve a function. Very quiet in…read moreterms of visitors, and on the day I visited the machine house was closed. There are exhibits in a few of the buildings which are interesting concerning history from the life of miners to forced labor during WW2. This is the only site next to the Bergbau Museum in Essen where one can climb to the top of one of the hoists, and boy is it towering. Easy to get to by train and a 10 min walk.