Almost 900 years of History

Hotel del Moli de la Torre. (La Fàbrica Vella)

La Fàbrica Vella is located on the right bank of the river Tenes to take advantage of the water and faces south to use the sunlight the whole day. It was a Catalan tradition due to the Industrial Revolution.

La Fàbrica Vella is part of a collection of historic buildings situated in el Rieral de Bigues: the main building is La Fàbrica, the reservoir, the farmhouse el Molinet, la Porteria or la Casa de la Fàbrica and the farmhouse called la Polvoreria.

La Fàbrica Vella is located on the right bank of the river Tenes to take advantage of the water and faces south to use the sunlight the whole day. It was a Catalan tradition due to the Industrial Revolution.

The first rooms of the enterprise were built in the ancient mill de la Torre. The first documents that talk about the mill are from 1156.

The documents founded in the parochial archive explain that in the 17th century the mill was a fulling-mill. Moreover, we found the first references of La Polvoreria, the farmhouse near the mill, in the same century. The farmhouse was the place where the cloth was dyed with the gunpowder. In fact, the place name polvoreria means: the place where the gunpowder is made.

On one hand, we do not know exactly the date that the enterprise was built, but approximately it was built in the 19th century. On the other hand, we know that the ancient mill was transformed into a textile enterprise. This transformation allowed to raise the productivity and to improve the techniques of the Industrial Revolution. During the sixties of the 19th century we have found the first references of a textile enterprise, the documents of Esteve Umbert i Ventura, a businessman from Sant Feliu de Codines.