The invention refers to a vertical shaft furnace (100) for a burden (115) moving under the influence of gravitation from the top to the bottom of the shaft furnace, in particular for the production of directly reduced iron, with a hot reduction zone (101) and a cooling zone (103) following the reduction zone (101), in which feed openings for a cooling gas (165) are provided, and with a cooling gas collecting member (160) which is provided in a transition portion between the reduction zone (101) and the cooling zone (103), which is characterized in that the cooling gas collecting member (160) comprises collector arms (181-184) arranged in cross shape, each of which forms a cooling gas off-take (170-173).