Old Demidovsky Factory Museum, Nizhny Tagil

The museum is the territory of a metallurgical plant that operated until 1987. Accordingly, there is nothing Demidovsky there, except that there really was a factory on this site, built by Demidov in 1725 next to a phenomenally rich iron ore deposit called Vysokaya Mountain. A year after its closure, the plant was declared Russia's first open-air technological museum, but it was abandoned for a long time and was not even properly guarded. It was only in the 21st century that the territory was put in order and guided tours began. The oldest buildings date back to the end of the 19th century, the equipment of the second half of the 20th century. Here you can see two blast furnaces, an air heater, a block of open-hearth furnaces with a filling machine, there is a railway section with technological rolling stock (ladles for melts, dumpcars, loading wagons), a slurry farm. A dam with a powerful flow of water makes a great impression - before the age of steam, water energy set factory mechanisms in motion, for which water channels diverged from the dam across the factory territory and water wheels stood directly in the workshops. This is the only enterprise of its kind in the world with preserved water channels. I must say that water energy was also used in the 20th century - next to the dam you can see an electric generator powered by a water wheel. The museum is positioned as an ecological park, and at the end of the tour, a master class on industrial pollution control is held. You can only enter the territory as part of a group by appointment on the museum's website.