It’s one of the very few well preserved testimonies of its kind: the headframe over shaft 1 of pit Grillo 1/2. The plant was created in the years 1966/67 and symbolizes the last developmental phase of cable supporting structures with its design in the Ruhr region.

The engineers built it as a two-story single trestle in welded box design and as a tripod trestle with attached guidance frame. It is therefore one of the last constructions of this young construction type that have survived – and that welcomes visitors today.

In 1873, the two mining entrepreneurs Friedrich Grillo and Heinrich Grimberg decided to found the Monopol union. In the same year, sinking work got under way in Kamen for shaft Monopol 1. But the persons in charge needed patience: production of the first hard coal only started in 1879. Eight years later, shaft Monopol 2 was added in Bergkamen, until the second pit with shafts 3 and 4 was created starting from 1890.

In 1933 by Essen-based Steinkohlebergwerke AG and in 1936 by Harpen Bergbau-AG. After the Second World War, pits Grillo 1/2/3 and Grimberg 1/2 were transferred into the ownership of the new Monopol Bergwerk AG. And in the 1950s, the next change of owners was under way: Franconian Energie GmbH from Nuremberg began to steadily acquire shares of Monopol Bergwerk AG. It therefore also became the new owner of Monopol mine in 1960. Nine years later, it was finally the newly founded Ruhrkohle AG that took over pit Grillo 1/2.