5. STATION: "Arkadengebäude"

    • A New Year's plaque and the catalogue of products made by the Sayner Hütte, 1819.
    • The Schinkel chair.
    • A section of the Schinkel chair, marked SAYNER HÜTTE.
    • Model of a crusher with six wooden stamps crushing rock and slag, driven by a water wheel.

    The products made in the Sayner Hütte and Prussian ornate iron

    The so-called arcade house was built around 1830 as a "products magazine". In keeping with its original use, ornate iron objects and excavation finds are once again displayed here. The upper floor of the old "products magazine" now houses the Iron Art Casting Museum. It provides insights into its top-class collection and the finest items from the Sayner Hütte, such as the famous Schinkel chair.

    In 1818, a so-called crucible foundry (art foundry) was set up at the Sayner Ironworks, modelled on those in Berlin and Gleiwitz. The first Sayner New Year's plaque appeared in 1819. It exemplified the programme of products made in the Sayner Hütte as a Prussian state enterprise. These included weapons and ammunition (cannons and cannonballs), machine parts (a rolled-up drawing of the so-called rail journey to Ehrenbreitstein Fortress) and fine ornate iron products like a bell, a crucifix and a portrait medallion.

    The outstanding quality of the ornate iron produced in the foundries in Berlin, Gleiwitz and Sayn remained virtually unrivalled in Europe. Ironworks all over Europe tried to copy the items. The Sayner Hütte was the only one to mark its ornate iron products with "S.H.". This was sometimes written out in full with capital letters "SAYNER HÜTTE": presumably to distinguish itself from the other Prussian iron foundries.