EL POBAL FORGE (Muskiz)
El Pobal Forge stands in the municipal area of the town of Muskiz. In this water-driven facility, iron ore was wrought into all types of tools and utensils. It was built at the beginning of the sixteenth century by the Salazars, the family that ruled over the area from the Muñatones Castle, and it continued operating until 1965.
Its period of maximum splendour came at the end of the seventeenth century, when the workshop and was extended and the hydraulic facilities were rebuilt. However, much of the buildings and machinery we can see today date from the end of the nineteenth century, when the last iron workers were struggling to survive in a technologically more advanced world.
A whole manufacturing complex grew up around the forge, including the ironworkers houses, the flour mill, the bread ovens, the vegetable gardens and the hills that supplied the forge with timber and charcoal.
Open to the public since 2004, El Pobal is a living museum dedicated to two of the most important preindustrial activities of the province: iron manufacture and milling. Visitors to this beautiful spot on the banks of the Barbadun river can see the two water wheels in action.
