Fiskars Village

Fiskars was founded as an ironworks in 1649 and made everything from nails to ploughs to the orange-handled scissors that carry the name, and when heavy production moved out the village of red brick and yellow ochre buildings along the river was left. From the 1990s it filled again with a different trade: designers, ceramicists, blacksmiths, glassblowers, textile makers and furniture designers took the old workshops and houses, and the village now runs on that, with studios, shops, exhibitions, a museum of the ironworks and restaurants. A design and art biennale is held here. Walking and cycling routes follow the river and the surrounding forest.

History

The name Fiskars, "fisherman's house", first appears in 1606, for a farm in the older village of Torby. The village grew around the ironworks founded in 1649 by the German-born Petter Thorwöste, which also produced copper; in 1822 John Jacob von Julin bought the works, opening a fine forge in 1830 and Finland's first engineering workshop in 1836, and the factories went on to turn out everything from scissors and puukko knives to ploughs and power transmissions, shipped out on a narrow-gauge railway to the harbour at Pohjankuru from 1891 to 1952. The manor house was designed in 1818 by the Italian-born architect Charles Bassi; the company that grew from the works no longer has factories here, and the village became part of the town of Raseborg in 2009 (Wikipedia, Fiskars, Finland).

Highlights

• Ironworks buildings turned to studios - the village of the 1649 works.
• Working craft workshops - smiths, ceramicists and glassblowers.
• The ironworks museum - the industrial history of the company.
• Riverside and forest walking routes - the country around the village.

When to go

May to September for the fullest opening; many studios and shops close or reduce hours in winter. A day. Summer weekends are busy and parking fills.

Before you go

Out of season much of the village is shut. It is thoroughly commercialised and prices are high. Summer weekends bring crowds to a small place. Public transport requires a connection at Karis.

Nearby

Raseborg castle is south; Ekenas lies beyond it.