The steel-manufacturing village of “Les Forges des Salles” is the finest example of industrial heritage in the Côtes d’Armor department, and of everyday life in a forge village during the 18th and 19th centuries, completely focused on the blast furnace. Situated in the Quénécan forest, this site was once one of the largest wood-fired forges in Brittany. Since 1990, it has been possible to visit this exceptionally well preserved former steel-manufacturing village, alone or with a guide: here, nothing has changed since production came to a halt in 1877. The visit takes you to the very heart of the industrial installations (the coal stores, the 12m high cast iron blast furnace), from the “bosses’ house” to the workers’ and foreman’s dwellings, the canteen, the grocer’s shop, the mixed-sex school (unusual for the times), the stables, the chapel, the terraced gardens etc.

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