Fond-de-Gras, mining valley
Minett Park Fond-de-Gras is an open-air museum focused on the industrial history of southern Luxembourg, with the mining of iron ore (“minette”) as its common thread. The site brings together several areas (Fond-de-Gras, Lasauvage, the former open-pit mine “Giele Botter”, and the Celtic oppidum of Titelberg), allowing landscapes, industry, and archaeology to be connected in a single reading of the territory.
What the mine tells us
At Fond-de-Gras, the underground extraction of ore stopped in 1955, then a landslide in 1964 put an end to railway activity on the Fond-de-Gras–Pétange line. The heritage reconversion then involved putting historical equipment back into circulation: the first “Train 1900” ran in 1973, and a mine was reopened to visitors via the “Minièresbunn” mining train. On the site, several buildings and facilities bear witness to nearly a century of activity (power station, old-time grocery store, train station, sheds, etc.).
