The Lengefeld Lime Works are a representative monument of the binders industry in the Ore Mountains. Above all, at the time of the creation and extension of the new mining towns in the 16th century, the binders industry gained great importance. It also gained a new impulse in the 19th century, as increasing industrialisation required great quantities of lime for construction. The development of the binders industry is not to be understood solely chronologically, with reference to technical development, but is also directly connected to the local deposits. Hence in the progress of the settling of the Ore Mountains locally restricted centres of the binders industry arose. At Lengefeld Lime Works the technical development of the binders industry can be traced from the 16th century up into the 20th century.

The Lengefeld Lime Works constitute the most expressive complex of monuments for the lime industry in Saxony. The complex is regarded as an exemplary installation for the extraction of lime during the pre-industrial and industrial period. Its special importance results from the closed stock of monuments relating to the areas of extraction, dressing, processing, administration and social matters as well as the associated preserved technical equipment.

Since 1986 the historic buildings of Lengefeld Lime Works have been used as a museum. The geological subsurface provides the conditions for the natural creation of a significant biotope in the midst of the historic mining area.