Engelsberg Ironworks

Engelsberg worked iron from the 1680s to 1919 and then stopped without being demolished or converted, which is why it is on the World Heritage list: not for a single building but for the survival of the whole system, some fifty structures with the blast furnace, the forge, the charcoal sheds, the office, the manor house and the workers' dwellings all standing in their original relationship. Swedish bar iron of this period was the material English steelmakers preferred, and works like this one are what produced it. The estate sits by a lake east of Fagersta with the Stromsholm canal running past, and the buildings are shown on guided tours in the summer months.

History

Iron was made in the district from at least the 13th century by peasants who mined the ore and smelted it in simple furnaces, and more modern methods came to Engelsberg at the end of the 16th century, raising output in the decades that followed. The county sheriff Per Larsson Höök, later Gyllenhöök, built the ironworks in 1681 on a site that miners had long worked, and between 1700 and 1800 it became one of the most modern ironworks in the world; it has been a World Heritage Site since 1993 (Wikipedia, Engelsberg Ironworks).

The main sights

• A complete works of about fifty buildings - furnace, forge, sheds, houses.
• The blast furnace and forge - as they were left in 1919.
• The manor and workers' dwellings - the social arrangement intact.
• A lakeside estate on the canal - the transport that served it.

When to go

May to September, when tours run. Two to three hours.

Practical notes

Interiors are tour-only and English tours are limited. The season is short. There is little on site beyond the works itself. The last stretch needs a car or a walk from the station.

Nearby

The Stromsholm canal runs through; Fagersta is north-west.

Key facts