La Farga (Anglès)

La Farga is the ruined shell of a former ironworks standing at the edge of Anglès, a small town in the la Selva county of Girona province, Catalonia. The remains sit right where the road from Girona enters town, close to the banks of the river Ter, which once supplied the water that powered the whole operation. Locals also know the site as Alt Forn del Pla d'Avall, "the tall furnace of Pla d'Avall," named after the flat area where it stands.

Where does the site's history begin?

A forge on this spot is recorded as far back as 1330, when it belonged to the estate of Anglès castle and handled basic iron-working. The real turning point came in 1777, when a new deposit of iron ore was found on the nearby Puig Ventós hill. Girona's civic authorities ordered test smelts of the ore, and a Swiss entrepreneur was granted the water rights on the Ter needed to drive a modern blast furnace. That discovery turned an old-fashioned village forge into an ambitious industrial project.

A century of failed attempts

Through the 1800s, a succession of companies tried to build a heavy iron industry around Anglès, changing hands and names more than once, and drawing ore from mines as far as La Cellera de Ter and the Guilleries hills. None of it stuck. The Puig Ventós ore was too poor in iron content, the local coal burned badly, transport links were too weak to bring in better raw material affordably, and the disruption of the Carlist Wars didn't help either. By the 1860s, official reports already described the furnace as idle and falling apart, and by the late 1870s the whole venture had been abandoned.

From furnace to brickworks

The buildings didn't vanish, though — they got a second life. Around the turn of the 20th century, the property passed to the Burés family, industrialists from Manresa who also ran textile mills in Anglès itself. They converted the old ironworks into a brick and tile factory, a bòbila supplying local construction. That business actually outlasted every previous attempt at the site, running until the 1970s.

What is left to see today?

What remains now is an abandoned, half-collapsed complex, heavily overgrown with ivy. The best-preserved piece is a distinctive stone tower that once housed offices — passers-by sometimes mistake it for a church tower. The ruins are in poor condition and would need serious conservation work to stabilise them. For visitors, the site is best appreciated from the outside, and it lies close to walking routes that follow the Ter through the area.

One thing worth flagging: "La Farga" simply means "the forge" in Catalan, and dozens of unrelated industrial sites across Catalonia carry the same name — La Farga de Bebié in the Ripollès or Farga Lacambra, among others. The Anglès site is a distinct local landmark tied specifically to this town's history and to the Puig Ventós ore deposit.

Frequently Asked Questions

Where exactly is La Farga located? At the entrance to Anglès on the road from Girona, in the Pla d'Avall area, close to the river Ter.

Can visitors go inside the ruins? The buildings are in poor condition and overgrown, so in practice the site is viewed from the outside rather than entered.

Why did the iron industry here fail? Low-grade ore from Puig Ventós, poor-quality local coal, weak transport links, and disruption from the 19th-century Carlist Wars all contributed to repeated business failures.

Is this the same "La Farga" as other sites with that name in Catalonia? No. "Farga" just means forge, and many independent sites across the region share the name. This one in Anglès is a separate landmark tied to local history and the Puig Ventós ore deposit.