Combined visit to the El Pobal finery forge and La Encartada beret factory
The El Pobal finery forge
El Pobal offers three differentiated and yet closely connected areas:
- The rooms that make up the building of the finery forge, which is the main construction of the complex.
- The interior of the flour mill, which is fully equipped and ready to operate.
- The palace house of the Salazar family, of late-Gothic style, also built in the early sixteenth century to give room for the forge workers.
The complex also includes two bread ovens which have been recently restored and a seventeenth-century bridge over the Barbadún river.
The “La Encartada” beret factory
This historical site is made up of several buildings, including the factory museum and the houses that the company built for its workers: an apartment house next to the factory (built in 1892-1894) and other apartment blocks by the BI-636 road (built in the early twentieth century). There is also a chapel attached to the apartment buildings, which also served as the neighbourhood school up until the mid-twentieth century. In addition, there was a separate house for the accommodation of the factory manager.
The factory comprises machinery of great cultural value. The machinery was started by a hydraulic turbine assembled by the Voith firm in 1904. Apart from moving all the factory machines, the turbine also produced some electric lighting for the premises.
