Located on the right bank of the Ognon, between Rougemont (25) and Montbozon (70), the high furnace Montagney began its activity at the end of the 17th century. Successively owned by Choiseul la Baume, la Baume Montrevel, Grammont, Mérode, it was leased to blacksmith masters including the famous Gauthier family. Joseph Gauthier will be nicknamed the Napoléon des Forges, Clarisse Gauthier-Vigoureux and Clarisse Gauthier-Coignet, born in Montagney, will be committed Fourierists and feminists.

The High furnace used “grain” ore from the surrounding villages and “rock” ore from the Battenans and Rougemontot mines. The Forge mainly makes cannonballs. Around 1810, the Marquis de Grammont renovated the whole thing. With a drop of 2.80m, the dam became the highest on the Ognon and production reached 800 tonnes of cast iron in 1834. At its peak in 1840, the Forge employed up to 84 workers before its decline and its conversion into a mill. and oil mill around 1850.

Classified MH, the high furnace is remarkably well preserved. Its architecture has a very strong similarity with engravings from the Encyclopédie of Diderot and d’Alembert. A collection of cast iron stoves from Franche-Comté is on display in the workers’ house. The path from the ore to the balls allows you to discover the exterior of the site. The whole constitutes an interesting testimony to the metallurgy of the 18th and 19th centuries: techniques, production, trades, social aspect…