Zuckenhut arsenic works, Breitenau am Hochlantsch, Bruck-Mürzzuschlag District, Styria, Austriai

Regional Level Types
Zuckenhut arsenic works	Processing Plant (Abandoned)
Breitenau am Hochlantsch	Municipality
Bruck-Mürzzuschlag District	District
Styria	State
Austria	Country

The arsenic works Zuckenhut/Straßegg (Breitenau/Gasen, Styria, Austria) -
Since the late Middle Ages, the Duchy of Styria has been one of the most important producers of arsenic (arsenic[III] oxide, As2O3) in Central Europe. Most of the production was intended for glass production in Venice or for export to the Mediterranean and the Middle East. Arsenic was created by roasting ores containing arsenic in furnaces, with the rising arsenic vapors resublimed in elongated, partly angled channels (poison trap). The resulting greyish flue dust was then refined by sublimation into a white, glassy, finely crystalline mass, which was also popularly known as "hut smoke" (Hidrach, Hittrach, Hüttrach). The use of arsenic as a poison is legendary, but also as an intoxicant and doping agent, as is impressively demonstrated by the phenomenon of "arsenic eaters" in the Alpine countries, particularly in Styria. On the other hand, little known and relatively unexplored is the fact that during the late modern period, in addition to pure arsenic, yellow and red arsenic sulphides were artificially produced in Styria, which were sold under the designations "Auripigment, Rauschgelb/Operment, Gelbglas" and "Realgar, Rauschrot, Rotglas” came on the market. 15 years ago, excavations by the Federal Monuments Office and the Joanneum Universal Museum in what used to be the mining area “Zuckenhut” in the Breitenau valley provided exceptional insights into their production. With the uncovering of a sublimation oven and a wooden basin north of the Straßegg pass, two historic plants for the production and purification of arsenic sulphides in the Eastern Alps were archaeologically examined for the first time and unique sample material from the dry (sublimation/melting) and wet chemical extraction (precipitation) of these metallurgical products was recovered. At the same time, independently of the archaeological research on Straßegg in 2007, an interdisciplinary research team at the Technische Universität München investigated the use of artificial arsenic sulfide pigments in Central European painting and polychromy, including the works of Rembrandt (1606-1669). Thanks to the new sample material from the Styrian site and the discovery of historical arsenic sulphide glasses in the mineralogical collections of the Universalmuseum Joanneum in Graz and the Benedictine monastery Admont, it was possible in a cooperation between Graz and Munich to gain new insights into colour, structure, material and to obtain the chemical composition of artificially produced arsenic sulphides.
From Modl et al. (2022).

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