Timeline

Heritage classified

Key figures

Origin and history

The Échalonge forges, located at Essertenne-et-Cecey in Haute-Saône, were founded in 1544 by Claude Agnus de Gray, farmer of the local ponds. Authorized by letters patent in June 1544, they initially included a furnace and a mill. The site, ruined in 1595 during the conflicts for Franche-Comté, was restored and became a major blast furnace in the 17th century, with an annual production of 500 to 800 tons of cast iron in the 18th and 19th centuries.

In 1831, Jean-Baptiste Jobard bought the site and modernized production by installing an innovative steam machine in 1834, using the lost heat from the blast furnace. This process, developed with the engineers Adéodat Dufournel, Laurent and Thomas, is spreading in the Saône valley. Despite these advances, the blast furnace shut down in 1877 and was demolished, leaving only remains such as the coal hall, the employer's house and a worker's house.

The site, marked by repeated destructions (1595, 1636, 1668), was also a place of technical innovation. In 1834 successful tests replaced charcoal with dried wood. The remaining buildings, including the water system powered by the pond, were listed in the Historical Monuments in 1993, thus preserving the memory of this major industrial activity.

The forges illustrate the evolution of steelmaking techniques in Burgundy-Franche-Comté, moving from artisanal production to early industrialization. Their decline in the 19th century reflected the economic changes in the region, where agriculture eventually replaced metallurgical activity on the site.

Today, the remains of the Échalonge forges, with their protected facades and roofs, offer a rare testimony of the 18th and 19th century industrial architecture. Their inclusion in the Supplementary Inventory of Historic Monuments underlines their heritage importance in French technical history.

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