Ziegenberg Gasometer

The Ziegenberg Gasometer is a remarkable piece of 19th-century industrial heritage: a spherical gas storage container from the 1880s, standing in a residential area of Siegen. It is one of the only surviving examples of this particular engineering type in Germany, which makes it far more significant than its modest size and setting would suggest. The sphere sits on a cylindrical base and still has its original ironwork intact.

For most visitors it is a curiosity rather than a destination — you will pass or detour to look at it, note its unusual form, appreciate that something this old and this obscure has been preserved, and move on. But for those interested in industrial archaeology or 19th-century engineering, it is the kind of object that rewards a deliberate visit. Local historians and the Siegerlandmuseum can provide context on the gas industry's role in the city's development.

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A story
The Ziegenberg Gasometer is one of the very few spherical 19th-century gas containers remaining in Germany. Built in the 1880s to hold coal gas for lighting, it represents the engineering approach of the early gas era, before the cylindrical telescoping gasometer became standard. Most spherical gasometers of this era were demolished long ago as impractical; Siegen's survival is the result of a preservation effort that recognised its rarity.