Horno3 - a museum inside a huge blast furnace

Elena

December 28, 2022

In fact, horno³ is much more than just a museum, it is a full-fledged interactive science and technology center with an exhibition area of 1500 meters. It's very interesting, isn't it? I invite you to walk around and outside the oven with me :)

On the left is the late 19th century, on the right is December 2022

A brief history

I've told you before about the Fundidora Park, which was a factory - now it is a place for recreation and entertainment. Horno3 - was the "heart" of this manufactory, the first blast furnace in Latin America, but on May 9, 1986 Fundidora Monterrey was recognized as a bacrot and closed its doors as a factory for good.

For 20 years the structure had stood unused and unmaintained, so it had fallen into such a deteriorated state that it had become dangerous. There were two options - either dismantle the furnace altogether or start rebuilding it. The State of Nuevo Leon fortunately decided to go the second way and after 22 months of hard work the horno³ opened to the public.

Since then, the museum has already received more than 2 million visitors, impressive!

The ticket price is 150 pesos for one adult (around $8 USD). By the way, we ended up buying two tickets each, how that happened - I will tell you further on

Что внутри музея

Horno³ consists of five main areas: the historical gallery, the steel gallery, the observation deck, the Earth Hall and the restaurant. There are also several laboratories for various science experiments and workshops for children.

History Gallery

In this room, visitors are told and shown about the development of the steel industry and how it affected Monterey (spoiler: more than significantly).

For example, the development of industry in Monterey helped build the railroad

There were many new quality electronics, cars, and they even built the city's first skyscraper!

The museography is truly magnificent: photographs, documents, tools, clothing, recreated life of workers and other evidence of the era.

You can try on workers' clothes, look in their lockers and try out the "turnstiles" of the time

Gallery of Steel

The most interactive hall where you can easily spend a couple of hours. Here the production processes of the steel industry are demonstrated with the help of... attention... 114 exhibits, almost all of which can be interacted with in various ways!

How many things are created from steel! By the way, each Mexican uses an average of 150 kilograms of steel per year

You can learn in detail how huge volumes of air are heated, about gas cleaning systems, why carbon gives steel its hardness, and how simply changing the amount of carbon can create dozens of different types of steel:

chromium steel, for example, doesn't rust and is therefore the best choice for surgical instruments.
vanadium steel retains its strength under load, so it's used for springs.
manganese steel is very hard to break through, so it's used for bank vaults, and much more.

Try being a train driver, work in a mine extracting iron ore, pedal a bicycle to generate electricity and light a light bulb.

See clearly how the color of steel changes at different heating temperatures

A few more experiments with electricity, magnets, heating, you can even look under a microscope at different rocks and minerals. You can't list it all, it's really an incredibly cool experience that you want to come back to again.

Observation deck

This is where the story of how we bought tickets to enter a second time unfolds. There are two types of visitors who can go up to the observation deck:

Those who bought entrance tickets with access to the whole museum (that was us)
Those who just want to go up to the observation room without seeing the rest of the halls (there is a separate entrance and ticket office for them). It costs only 100 pesos (around $5 USD).

Apparently, we were so delighted with this museum that when we went to the elevators, we got confused and queued to buy tickets for the second time with the certainty that it was necessary to pay extra for the ascent to the observation deck - but it was not true at all. I'm surprised that none of the staff said anything to us, because our first tickets were visible (they are stickers, at the entrance they look carefully to make sure that you put them on the most visible place).... However, the museum is really cool, so we'll count the repeated purchase of tickets for support of this place.

Let's finish the lyrical digression and get back to the museum. At an altitude of 70 meters you can enjoy a breathtaking panoramic view of Monterrey and the mountains.

The sunset begins

But an even more exciting way to get up to this observation deck: on the industrial diagonal elevators that run through the former mineral feed system.

Climbing at a very relaxed pace, you can start admiring the views right away

Sitting in this elevator, one can vividly imagine how hundreds of workers of the once great factory moved to the top every day in this way.

The most adventurous can take a ride on the zip line. The way is not long, but the height and the view should be amazing. We didn't check it out :)

Earth Hall

A kind of observatory, in which a light show about our planet is shown four times a day. The space was created in collaboration with the Climate Institute.

The voiceover is in Spanish, but at the entrance all English-speaking visitors are given a scan of QR with a beautiful pdf, although it does not duplicate the actual program and it can not be used during the show, because it takes place in total darkness. But after the show it is curious to read it.

And it's all inside one of the ovens

Thanks for walking with us :) ! I talk about my life in Mexico in this telegram channel. I will be glad if you find my experience useful or interesting ❤