Palau Forge in Ripoll

This is the only early iron forge that survives in Catalunya. It is on the road beside the River Freser in the town of Ripoll, on the ground floor of a three-storey block with people living above it. From the seventeenth century it produced bar iron and artefacts of wrought iron such as nails and railings. Later it made copper objects, continuing until 1978: scrap copper was melted and cast then shaped by repeated heating and hammering. The forge has two huge wooden trip hammers with steel heads, powered by a waterwheel and an iron camshaft. The wheel was supplied with water from a pond connected to the river. The forge was acquired by the National Museum of Science and Technology of Catalonia (MNACTEC) and is currently one of its branches and part of its Territorial System of 26 museums that explain industrialization in Catalonia. The site is furnished with hand-tools, charcoal, metal and equipment.

The Ethnographic Museum, a few streets away in Plaça de l’Abat Oliba, presents the history of the region and shows products from the forge.