Frohnauer Hammer

Frohnauer Hammer was a water-powered hammer mill and ironworks in Frohnau, a village in the Ore Mountains that is now part of Annaberg-Buchholz, Saxony, Germany. Originally a corn mill, it was converted into an iron hammer mill by 1660 and used trip hammers driven by the Sehma river to make iron strips, armor, shovels, mining tools such as hammers and picks, agricultural implements and other wrought ironwork. The mill stayed in production until 1895 and closed for good in 1904 after becoming unprofitable. It was preserved and opened to the public in 1910, and in 1907 it was named the first technical monument in Saxony. Since reopening as a museum in 1953 it has drawn around 7.6 million visitors, and it still operates today as a heritage site offering demonstrations of the original seventeenth century hammer technology alongside a guest house and restaurant.