F60 – the ‘hor­i­zon­tal Eif­fel Tower’

The F60 over­bur­den con­veyor bridge is def­i­nitely a sight worth see­ing. If you want to learn more about the his­tory of open­cast min­ing in Lusa­tia, and about the tech­nolo­gies used, the indus­trial her­itage and the changes the land­scape under­went, then the vis­i­tor mine is just the ticket.

With a mon­strous rat­tle and metal­lic squeal, the huge machine once pushed its way through the land­scape near Lichter­feld and, with the help of two bucket-chain exca­va­tors, slowly cleared the path to the lig­nite, the ‘Lusa­t­ian gold’. The steel colos­sus has now been decom­mis­sioned, but is more excit­ing than ever. Thou­sands of vis­i­tors climb the giant every year and are amazed by its sheer size: at 502 metres long, 204 metres wide and weigh­ing in at more than 11,000 tonnes, the F60 is also known as the ‘hor­i­zon­tal Eif­fel Tower’.

On a guided tour, vis­i­tors can feel the wind on their face at a height of almost 80 meters, take a peek into the con­trol cen­tre and the com­puter build­ing, and, at night, expe­ri­ence the way the bridge becomes a sculp­ture of light and sound. Adven­tur­ous types can even abseil down from a height of 60 metres. The land that was once rav­aged by this colos­sal machine is now hid­den beneath Lake Bergheide. And this bur­geon­ing leisure des­ti­na­tion is now cre­at­ing its own superla­tives: the new lake boasts the longest and widest sand beach in the Lusa­t­ian Lake­land.

A gar­gan­tuan steel back­drop

The sky above the F60 glit­ters, and colour­ful sparks envelop the steel giant as thou­sands of peo­ple gather below to look on. The crowd ‘oohs’ and ‘aahs’ in amaze­ment at the mar­vel­lous com­po­si­tion of light, colours, booms and bangs. But the F60 vis­i­tor mine in Lichter­feld offers much more than just spec­tac­u­lar fire­works dis­plays. The steel colos­sus has estab­lished itself as an unusual back­drop for all man­ner of events. Over the years, artists such as Max Raabe, Semino Rossi, Ray Wil­son – for­merly of Gen­e­sis – and rock bands City and Silly have all played at the foot of the mas­sive machine. Every year, vis­i­tors can look for­ward to a wide range of cul­tural events, from open-air con­certs, fes­ti­vals and exhi­bi­tions to shows against the huge steel back­drop of the for­mer min­ing giant.