An Active Water-Driven Hammer Forge: Mazo de Mazonovo and Wrought Ironwork in Asturias

Abstract

Mazo de Mazonovo, in Santa Eulalia de Oscos, is an eighteenth-century water-driven hammer mill still operating as a blacksmith’s forge, employing the same ironworking techniques used by local smiths over generations. The ensemble demonstrates the precision and efficacy of traditional water-powered systems applied to forge work and reflects the high technical accomplishment attained by Asturian ferrería ironworks. Its continuing use keeps the whole ensemble—dam, millrace, waterwheel, hammer, and forge—in working order, conserving the know-how required to operate such a forge and assuring the continuity of a technology which for centuries was essential to Asturian metallurgy.