Study of an “Artefact” of the Castilla Canal: Reconstruction of the Missing Machinery

This work aims to apply a systematic methodology to the analysis and graphical recovery of the “artefact” of the first lock of the Canal de Castilla (“the forge of Alar del Rey”) located in the Canal de Castilla as it passes through the province of Palencia (Spain). The canal, a great engineering work that began in the 18th century, was declared an asset of cultural interest (BIC, for its acronym in Spanish) in 1991 and was included in the National Plan for Industrial Heritage. To analyze and to obtain graphic reconstruction proposals, six main activities were developed, following three phases (study of primary and complementary technological and historical sources, fieldwork, and digital reconstruction). The reconstruction proposals were evaluated using three criteria: artefact data, the number of similar artefacts, and the performance. The weights of these three criteria were obtained using the Best-Worst Method (BWM), and the reconstruction proposals were classified using the Technique for Order of Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (TOPSIS) under uncertain conditions. AutoCAD was used to obtain detailed artefact geometric documentation (plans and detail drawings of each element). The work carried out on the artefact has allowed the reconstruction of the missing machinery and its factory, establishing a proposal consistent with the technological solutions of the end of the eighteenth century as well as with the ironworks studied and with the documentary sources consulted, recovering the memory of an artefact that is about to be lost.