I'm gonna guess it's an evaporator for a salt mine.
I've seen similar apparatus at salt mines in Germany.
Originally Posted by
realsteel
Here's something we came across today and it's pretty weird:
It's a wooden frame 636 meters long, 12 meters high and was built in the 18th century. The frame is completely stuffed with branches of wood. Windmills pump water to the top and it trickles down to the base.
Here's my bicycle for scale:
It's a bit horrible to behold:
... and smells vaguely of fish.
Can you guess what it does?