The Tamiello Forge(1) stands on the banks of the Breganze canal(2) and remains as evidence of the intense metallurgical activity which existed in the Upper Vicenza Province in the past. It is part of a seventeenth-century establishment which had been transformed over the years to make it suitable for the addition of various activities such as: a forge, a sawmill and a threshing mill, each provided with a water wheel and still present in the factory in the eighteen hundreds. This layout changed, following the division of the factory between various owners. The three rooms comprising the forge still contain the ancient tools needed by the master blacksmiths. A fall of water in the canal drove the iron-bladed water wheel at the entrance to the forge and the movement was in turn transmitted to an upright drilling machine. The drive shaft also transmitted this movement by means of belts and gears to a disk saw, a wood-turning lathe and some grinding wheels. The entrance provides access to the room used for storage and the forge hall(3); the furnace for heating the metal, the anvil, the forge(4) itself and the grinding wheel driven by the water wheel(5) outside and the forge itself are all kept here.
by Francesco Tavone
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