🔨 EL POBAL forge, Muskiz (Bizkaia, Spain) + Bamboo Forest 🎋
Web: https://bizkaikoa.bizkaia.eus/detalle...
In the mining area of the province of Vizcaya (Spain), there is the El Pobal Ironworks, a hydraulic factory where iron ore was processed to convert it into metal and make all kinds of tools and household items, among others. It was built at the beginning of the 16th century.
Its heyday was at the end of the 17th century, when the workshop was expanded and the dam, the canal, the forecourt and the hydraulic tunnel were rebuilt. However, a good part of the buildings and machinery that we can see today (the forge, the coal bunkers, the stone bellows, the hammer and the anvil) are from the end of the 19th century. They responded to the reforms that the last forgers had to carry out in order to remain competitive in a technologically more advanced world, which was no longer theirs. With these changes, the ironworks remained in operation until 1965.
Open to the public since 2004, El Pobal is a living museum of two of the most important pre-industrial activities in Bizkaia: iron manufacturing and milling. Visitors to this beautiful setting on the banks of the Barbadún River will be able to enjoy the visit to see the two hydraulic machines put into operation.