Photographs from the 2004 Study Tour - Catalonia, Spain

Copyright © 2004 by each photographer and historical text by James Douet, from the SIA Study Tour Guide, Catalonia Spring 2004

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Colònia Sedó:The Colònia Sedó was one of the largest of the Catalan rural industrial settlements.Built between 1847 and 1850, it took advantage of an existing water power site of an old flour mill site on the Llobregat river. At its peak, 3,000 people worked here and 1,800 lived in the colony producing corduroy - the denim of the nineteenth century. TheColònia included spinning and weaving mills, bleaching works, whose steam engine has the emblematic spiral brick chimney; warehouses, workers' housing, a church and a school, as well as many support facilities that ensured its self sufficiency: brickworks, limekilns, foundry, builders’ yard and firehouse, hospital and shops. In 1878, when the fall supplying the original waterwheel became inadequate, a second dam was built 4km upstream and the water carried by a raised, covered aqueduct across the Colònia to a 30m head above the turbines. Installed in 1899, the current Francis turbine delivered 1,400 H.P. and was the largest in Spain at that time. It was later converted to generate electricity. The colony offered work, accommodation, and a degree of financial and social stability, in return for conformity and obedience to the requirements of the factory and its owner. From the 1870s, when the first houses were built for workers arriving from outside the area, and later on from outside Catalonia, bars and shops, school, church, nursery, cinema and theatre were added. The first flats were only 80m2 with three bedrooms,kitchen and washroom. The complex now houses a variety of commercial and industrial activities, including the museum that explains its history and water power system.

Upward view inside the aqueduct, Colònia Sedó - Photograph by Marc Greuther

Water powered Farga del Comú, Catalan forge

Farga del Comú, Catalan forge

Photographs by Patrick Martin


Farga del Comú, Catalan forge, Banyoles After Ripoll, this is the only other even partially-complete Catalan forge. It was built in 1685 and was active in the second half of the C19, finally closing in the mid C20. It occupies the last head of water before the lake in the centre of Banyoles.

Photograph by Susan Martin.

Farga Palau, Ripoll. The first record of a Catalan forge is from 1031, but they were most widely used during the C17 and C18. The important trades associated with the ironworks were nail and armaments, the latter a specialty of Ripoll. The Catalan forge fell into decline due to the exhaustion of the local charcoal supplies and competition from coke-fired blast furnaces, which were introduced into Spain at the end of the C18. Technologically it was an efficient type of bloomery furnace, capable of reducing iron ore to make 150kg of wrought iron or steel during a 6-7 hour heat. The main elements the a forge were the hearth and tilt hammer but it was the system of blowing the hearth by a trompe instead of bellows that was most characteristic. In the trompe, water falling from a small deposit concentrated air in a box behind the furnace, forcing it into the charcoal and keeping the fire hot. The bloom was passed between the furnace and the water-powered hammer until the carbon content had been sufficiently reduced. The Farga Ripoll dates from the Middle Ages and continued in use to the 1960s.

Farga Palau Canal, Ripoll

Photographs by Patrick Martin.

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