The Great Forge of Buffon, Forge in Buffon, Burgundy, France
La Grande Forge de Buffon is an 18th-century iron-making facility in Buffon, Burgundy, featuring large furnaces, workshops, and worker housing arranged around a rectangular courtyard. The complex displays smelting furnaces, traditional tools, and water-powered machinery that once shaped and forged metal goods.
The forge was founded in 1768 by Georges-Louis Leclerc de Buffon, a scientist who designed it as both a production facility and research laboratory for his metalworking experiments. The site changed ownership several times after Buffon and continued producing iron through the 1800s before ceasing operations in 1923 following a fire.
The forge was a center of metalworking craft that shaped the region's industrial identity for generations. Visitors can still sense how blacksmiths and metal workers left their mark on local traditions and daily life through the objects and techniques displayed here.
The forge is best visited during the warmer months from April to October, when it is open most days except Tuesdays and offers extended hours for exploration. Guided tours are available, and there is a small shop for souvenirs and rotating exhibitions that explain traditional metalworking methods and tools.
Buffon used the facility as a scientific laboratory to conduct metalworking experiments and explore theories about the age of the Earth through his research. This rare combination of industrial production and scientific inquiry made the forge a place where craftsmanship and scientific discovery worked side by side.
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