The Nizhny Tagil Ironworks was founded in 1725 by the Demidov dynasty and included a full cycle of metal production: from the preparation of iron ore and charcoal to the smelting of cast iron, iron, and copper. The factory also had economic and repair services, as well as brick and sawmill factories. After the opening of the Novotagil Metallurgical Plant, new blast furnace technologies for producing quality cast iron were developed at the Kuybyshev plant. During the Great Patriotic War, ferrochrome, ferromanganese, and stainless steel strips for aircraft manufacturing were produced here. In 1957, the plant became part of NTMK and remained one of the largest in Europe until October 1987, when its operation was ceremoniously concluded. Symbolic keys to the plant were handed over to the Nizhny Tagil Museum-Reserve of Mining and Metallurgy of the Middle Urals.

The museum based on the closed plant opened in January 1989. In 1992, part of the plant's territory was transferred to it along with infrastructure and historical zones, allowing for the creation of a museum complex covering 30 hectares.

The museum-factory includes exhibitions demonstrating the main stages of metallurgical production: blast furnace shop, rolling production, open-hearth shop, energy management, equipment for mechanical metal processing and casting. Exhibitions of factory machinery and rolling stock from the 19th and 20th centuries are also presented. The museum has partially preserved the appearance of buildings from the 18th and 20th centuries, including blast and open-hearth furnaces, a water turbine, and a bridge crane from 1892, water lorries, and the blast furnace building from the early 19th century.

The exhibition of factory machinery includes samples of equipment from the 1920s-1930s, as well as larch logs that have been preserved since the construction of the dam and the plant, raised during the dam reconstruction in 1992. The dam, built in 1721 and repeatedly reconstructed, has also been well preserved.

The museum includes: blast furnace shop, energy shop, rolling shop, metal structures shop, sheet metal shop, office of the repair and installation shop, forge, open-hearth shop, factory office, mechanical factory, stable yard, pouring machine, and equestrian sports ground.

The museum-factory is recognized as a monument of industrial heritage of regional significance in Russia.