Built in 1895, municipal monument
Past
This building was once the home of the munitions factory gatekeeper. Since then, it has served various purposes. First, it was split into two dwellings for the stokers and their families. It was the stokers’ job to stoke the boiler, day and night. Later, it was turned into a canteen building and rest area for the cartridge factory, an office for buying and selling, and a reception building. The building has been extended over the years and, nowadays, only the very top floor of the original building is still visible from outside.
A former employee recalls: ‘That building was a canteen to begin with, but after the company became Eurometaal, the Development department was housed there. It was there that Spanjer had his accident. […] I was sitting reading when, suddenly, I hear someone approaching. And I say, ‘what have you got there?’ ‘That’s an electro-mechanical safety on a fuze,’ he says. […] ‘Look, it works like this.’ He presses on a little trigger, and the thing starts up. […] I can see there’s a live detonator in it. But I think to myself, it’s mechanically aligned and ignited electrically. As long as it doesn’t come in contact with electricity, we’ll be fine.’ ‘That’s clever,’ I say. And I put it to one side and carry on reading. I look at the clock and it’s 4.20. At 4.30 the whistle sounds and I think, I’ll grab my jacket, it was hanging over on the rack, luckily for me. So I stand up and walk over to my jacket and there’s a loud bang behind me. Like a gunshot. I think, that’s not right. So I’m standing by the door, I turn around and […] he was completely white. That piece of junk had exploded, it had flown up to the ceiling. He was covered in the powdery stuff. [….] So I run out, because around the corner was the construction office and they had a telephone. So I call the medical service and say ‘can you come right away, something’s happened to Spanjer.’ He says ‘his heart?’. ‘No no.’ ‘What’s happened then?’ I say ‘you’ll see.’ Because I’m thinking to myself, if I say ‘there’s been an explosion,’ they’ll send the fire brigade […] round in no time. […] So Hubert turns up, the medical officer’s brother, and he was put straight in the car, me too, and we’re taken to the medical service. Then everybody turns up, the fire brigade, the police, they all wanted to talk to me, I was the main witness, I had to stay.’
Present
Currently, the building is home to Taets Art and Event Par., Events and exhibitions are held here.
More information: https://www.taets.com/
Built in 1896, municipal monument
Past
This was the workshop of the projectiles factory and the primer building. A primer is a fast-burning, usually explosive mixture, such as gunpowder. There were various types of primer. Shock-sensitive primer was made for percussion caps on cartridges. Shock-sensitive primer is a chemical substance that ignites or explodes when subjected to a shock or when struck with force. Ignition primers were also made. In ammunition, an ignition primer causes an object with which it comes into contact to ignite.
Fuzes, caps, and cartridges were assembled in the workshop. In front of the building was a gate with a checkpoint. Since fire was very dangerous, employees had to leave all flammable objects outside the building. Later on, the office of the munitions assembly department was based here. The annex on the north side served as a boiler room and is connected to the main building by a wooden connecting passage.
Present
Vleugel, designs and creations in wood is now based here.
More information: https://vleugel.nu/
Built in about 1895, municipal monument
Past
Originally, the building was the munitions factory kitchen. Later, it was occupied by the staff of the Munitions Assembly and Inspection Service offices. The building is connected to building 1 by a corridor. The extension on the north side was built after World War Two.
Present
Events and exhibitions venue Taets Art and Event Park is currently based here.
More information: https://www.taets.com/
Built in 1897, national monument
Past
This building is part of the oldest surviving structure that was part of the munitions factory. The store was originally intended to store materials for the turning shop, foundry, and projectiles factory. Later, it was turned into an office space for the technical department.
A former employee recalls: ‘In the store, I handled the admin for materials that had been issued. The people from the drawing office and the factories came to request materials or parts. […] There was a card index of stocks, and what I’d handed out and to whom. It was a good system. I was never aware of any squabbles, shortages, far too much being ordered, and so on. For the card index, you had to write between the lines on the card. That’s when I started writing really small, because the space was so tight. My writing is still really small.’
Present
Events and exhibitions venue Taets Art and Event Park is currently based here.
More information: https://www.taets.com/
Built in about 1897, national monument
Past
This building in the neo-renaissance style is one of the oldest buildings on the site. This was the office building for the munitions factory, in other words the offices of the officers employed at the projectiles factory. The projectiles factory was made up of various departments where projectiles were cast and turned. In another, screened-off area the grenades and cartridges were filled and assembled, which was dangerous work. The office building also housed a chemical laboratory. Two officers and their families also lived there. Changes have been made to the windows, doors and roof covering over the years. The ground floor was later set up as a showroom and visitor refreshment area, whilst the canteen and recreation room were located on the first floor. Here, the staff association arranged celebrations and parties, plays and films were shown, and people gathered to enjoy the music of the company band. Many employees also celebrated their work anniversaries here.
Due to the military nature of the site and factory, a rigid hierarchy dominated for many years. Workers (civilian staff) and officers (military personnel) each had their own entrance and canteen. The officers’ entrance was also called the ‘dievenpoort’ (thieves’ gate). Unlike the workers, they were not checked to make sure they were not taking equipment or other items home with them. Taking items home was strictly forbidden, and was punished by instant dismissal.
A former employee recalls: ‘We had a great lunch and breaks area. As I recall, gramophone records were played. I have a recollection of waltz music. The gramophone went ‘tadada-tamtam’ and we all tapped out ‘ramram-tamtam’ with a spoon or fork in reply. When we’d finished our sandwiches, we often hung around to play cards.’
Present
Events and exhibitions venue Taets Art and Event Park is currently based here.
More information: https://www.taets.com/
Built in 1900, municipal monument
Past
This building had several functions. It was used for inspecting and storing cartridges and shells. On the first floor, there was the printing office and the paper store. The walkways between the workstations can be still be seen on the floor covering. On the ground floor, the ceiling is supported by cast steel columns.
Built in 1899, national monument
Past
This is one of the oldest buildings on the site. It took a full four years to build, because the fresh clay soil had to settle first. In 1938, the building was converted to the head office. It was an imposing building with a fancy staircase. Being an administrative building, it was one of only a handful of buildings where lots of women worked. Employees could collect their salary here each week. The only reminders of the building’s former role are the huge built-in safe and the remnants of the cabinet wall in the drawing office on the first floor.
In the 1990s, it was used for exercises by the Mobile Unit, sometimes even involving helicopters During these exercises, a hole was made in the roof that was never repaired. The building quickly fell into disrepair, and the shell was restored in 2017-2018.
A former employee recalls: ‘Every Saturday morning, an old guy, Mr Bakker, came into the factory and blew on a long whistle. He had his own ritual. First, he gave a long blow on his whistle, and that meant the higher wages were about to be paid out. These were for the professionals, and they had to go to the canteen building to get their weekly wages. The second blow was for the next ones down the hierarchy, and so on. There were four whistle-blows in all. The fourth was for the young lads. However, they usually headed over to the canteen building on the first whistle, as they were so eager to get their hands on their money. […] Wage-wise, as a thirteen or fourteen-year-old lad, you earned three guilders a week. That was quite a lot in those days. It dawned on me later on that this was an incentive, because each year you got a pay rise of about (wait for it…) sixty cents. It was easy to work out what you would be earning by the time you were nineteen.’
Built in 1901, national monument
Past
The storeroom is one of the oldest surviving buildings. It was used to store mobilization supplies. Following the mobilization in 1939-1940, it became the Central Store. Here, clothing, shoes and household items were stored. A narrow-gauge railway ran the length of the building, to transport goods. The building has three floors, yet there are no stairs inside. Upper floors can be reached on foot via the external steps. Later on, a lift was installed in the building. Its striking features are the segmental arches above the window frames with their sliding windows, and the overhanging drip moulds (a later addition).
Present
The current occupant is Storeroom 14 B.V., a business centre that provides work space for entrepreneurs.
More information: https://www.magazijn14.nl/
Built in 1917, 1932, 1937 and 1952, building 112 municipal monument
Vroeger
This complex comprises four buildings. The oldest building is 112, which dates from 1917. It is tall and narrow, earning it the nickname ‘the cathedral.’ Its most striking features are the windows and the roof trusses, with riveted steel joints. Building 112 housed a press shop for large shells. Building 294, constructed in 1932, also housed a press shop, with a turning shop. In the late 1950s, the AR-10 rifle was assembled here. In 1937, building 330 was built onto the east façade, as a press shop for large shells, or cartridge shells as they are also known. Shells are filled with a detonator and gunpowder, the cartridge is mounted on them. After the weapon is fired, only the shell remains.
The front of building 330 is curved and has ornamental brickwork. Building 407 was added in 1952. This housed the furnaces for the annealing line. Annealing was a means of hardening materials. Chemical treatment of the shells improved their durability and prevented rust. Later on, components for medium calibre ammunition were manufactured in this complex of buildings.
On the front of the complex is the entrance to the shelters beneath the site.
A former employee recalls: ‘Here at Eurometaal we had one of only two water-powered presses in the Netherlands, it weighed two thousand tonnes. It ran on water, not oil. Water pressure forced it down. […] A sawn-off piece of metal was heated until red-hot, then cooled. It was then fed automatically into the press, and the press made the first rough, thick, m483 shell for an anti-tank grenade.’
Present
This is now the Hotel Wonderland for immersive theatre. Hotel Wonderland is home to twelve characters, all of whom are on a journey to fulfil and resolve their own dreams and dilemmas. As a guest, you decide which character to follow and can switch storyline whenever you want.
More information: https://hotelwonderland.nl/