The Fassina Balanyà in L’Espluga de Francolí was a family industry engaged in the process used to obtain alcohol from grape residue. The factory, which dates from the mid 19th century, was in operation until the 1950s, when it closed for various reasons, one of which was the need for a major overhaul which the owners could not afford. Now, with its incorporation into the Museu de la Ciència i de la Tècnica de Catalunya (Science and Technology Museum of Catalonia) Territorial System –since 2000 it has been connected as an associate museum centre– and its architectural refurbishment, we have a renovated building which is crucial for an understanding of the economic recovery of the country in the late 17th century, when the Dutch came to the coast of Catalonia to buy alcohol because of the war with France.

Since December last year, the totally restored Fassina Balanyà is open to visitors and is once again distilling eau-de-vie, though now it does so as an educational demonstration of what it did before. Among the tools and pieces to be seen during the visit are the boiler, the fireplace, the two pots for boiling the residue, the press, the seed sorter, the trucks, the residue and the deposits for the tartar. The idea was to show what it was like before, so that visitors can find out about the operation of a distillery.

Along with the restoration of the factory and as an exhibition resource for a better interpretation, three audiovisuals have been installed to help understand the activity that went on there. They contain compilations of the spoken testimonies of former workers. Moreover, one of the fundamental pieces on display is the steam engine, “the soul of the factory” as the museum technician Florenci Romeu defined it on the day of the inauguration. As the crowning experience of the visit, there is a live distillation of eau-de-vie for smelling and tasting the first samples.

The renovation of the distillery building, declared of local interest by L’Espluga Council, received the support of the Lluís Carulla Foundation and the Museu de la Ciència i de la Tècnica de Catalunya (mNACTEC), which has incorporated it into the present network of 25 technical and industrial museums.

The process of recovering the building began with the purchase of the property and the surrounding land by L’Espluga de Francolí Council. The Department of Culture and Communications Media financed the museum refurbishment project, commissioned from the Varis Arquitectes studio and directed by Dani Freixes. It consisted of restoring the original machinery and putting it back in the right place and equipping the facility with an exhibition and a distillation workshop for the enjoyment of visitors.