Forges de Dampierre-sur-Blévy

Steelworking site founded in 1670 by the Bourbon-Condé family, active for two centuries and still home to the last remaining examples of 17th-century steelworking furnaces. Site includes the forge master's house (built 17th-18th centuries), dam, 17-hectare lake.

The forges of Dampierre-sur-Blévy were created in about 1669 near the Forest of Senonches for its plentiful supplies of raw materials. It was the first integrated works in France, with two blast furnaces on the same site and octagonal chimneys. In additional to the wood and ore, the works used the power of the water from a 17 hectare lake on the Blaise to power the bellows. It was here that Colbert had the canons made for the royal fleet and the 52 kilometres of underground pipes for the aqueduct of Louis XIV. Today, the house of the Forge Master, a double furnace, the storehouses for coal and casts, the lake, the bellows buildings and the workers' house.