An apparatus for producing highly curved, tempered sheets of glass. A horizontal, continuous conveyer is provided for transporting planar sheets of glass into an electrically heated, oscillating or continuously operating horizontal hearth-type furnace for softening the glass. A stationary combined bending and cooling station is essentially disposed directly after the furnace, and includes a vertical bending press and a fixed lower bending mechanism in which, in the first phase, a sheet of glass receives the desired shape, and in a second phase is tempered. Fixed coolant connections are provided on the vertical bending press and on the lower bending mechanism for providing coolant to the bending press and lower bending mechanism.