Saut du Tarn Museum

The Saut-du-Tarn Steel Works at Saint-Juéry was founded in 1824. It specialized in manufacturing steel hand-tools such as files, scythes and sickles, and later agricultural machinery and other equipment with the brands Talabot and SDT. It grew in the late 19th and 20th centuries to have a blast furnace as well as a rolling mill and manufacturing workshops. By 1925 there were 2,500 workers. It closed in 1983. Several businesses use the site today. A museum is located in the first hydroelectric plant for the works, built in 1898. Visitors see original turbines and dynamos and many associated artefacts beside an 18m waterfall on the River Tarn. The displays use animated models, films and demonstrations. A sound and light show brings to life a 23-m model of the works. The working-class community that grew up around the works is presented by recorded testimonies. A documentation centre preserves publications, images and archives.