Lockgruvan

Useful Information

Location:	Pershyttan, 4 km from Nora. (59.494478, 15.006519)
Open:	MAY to SEP daily. OCT to 04-MAY groups after appointment. Tours: 03-MAY to 22-JUN Sat, Sun 13. 23-JUN to 31-AUG daily 13. 06-SEP to 28-SEP Sat, Sun 13. [2007]
Fee:	Adults SEK 100, Children (10-17) SEK 50, Children (0-9) free. [2022]
Classification:	Iron Mine
Light:	Incandescent Electric Light System
Dimension:
Guided tours:	D=1 h, VR=40 m.
Photography:	allowed
Accessibility:	no
Bibliography:	Niklas Järvstråt (2010): A Self-Sufficient Moon-Base Analogue, in: Lunar Settlements, 1st Edition, 2010, CRC Press, ISBN 9780429150029. online DOI
Address:	Pershyttan Cultural Reserve, Pershyttan Kulturreservag Nora Turistbyrå (Nora Tourist Office), Järnvägsgatan 1, 713 31 Nora, Tel: +46-587-81120. E-mail:
As far as we know this information was accurate when it was published (see years in brackets), but may have changed since then. Please check rates and details directly with the companies in question if you need more recent info.

History

12th century	estimated start of mining.
1400	first written mention of mining at Pershyttan.
1856	charcoal fired blast furnace built.
1896	renovation of blast furnace.
1909	Lockgruvan closed.
1940	blast furnace modernized.
1953	blast furnace closed.
1967	last mine closed.
1993	received the award Europa Nostra for the preservation of the historic town.
2004	becomes a cultural reserve, show mine opened.

Geology

Description

The mining at Pershyttans bergsmansby started in the Middle Ages, and ended in 1967. The last operating mine was Storgruvan (Large Mine), but after it was closed the whole mine filled with water and is today inaccessible. Pershyttan is named after the blast furnace (hyttan) which was the center of the village. The mines surrounding the furnace provided the ore. The charcoal fuelled blast furnace which is still visible was built 1856 and closed 1953. For one century it produced cast iron, and today it is one of the last remaining furnaces, and one of the best preserved historic furnaces in Europe.

Today Pershyttan is a sort of open air museum, with visitor centre, Gruvmuseum (mining museum), Hyttan (furnace), and Smedjan (blachsmith). It is often called Pershyttan Cultural Reserve. It is signposted "Bergsmansby" at the road, the turnoff leads to the huge parking lot at the end of the railroad tracks Nora-Pershyttan. The railroad transported the mined iron away, there once was a small station of which only the sign remains. But there is a unique café named Pershyttans Tågcafé which is inside two train wagons. They are parked at the end of the track. There are still trains, but only during summer as they are historic trains with steam locomotives. And there is a Nora Järnvägsmuseum (Nora railway museum) in nearby Nora with a station building, locomotives, workshops, steam locomotives, rail buses and much more.

We recommend to start at the visitor centre where visitors can register for guided tours, which is essential if they wish to enter the Lock Gruva or the ironworks. Nevertheless, it is better to book mine tours early online or at the tourist info in Nora. The centre also provides information on nature trails and mountain bike trails, maps and brochures.

Lockgruvan (Lock Mine) was mined until 1909 and is very old. The mine is equipped with modern multimedia displays and animatronic, and for some time it was visited on self-guided tours. Visitors can get information on various topics from those installations, while venturing 45 m underground. It seems this was discontinued, probably because of Covid-19. Today the mine and the furnace can be visited only on guided tours. Originally the site was open all year, it seems this has changed too. However, they have not published current open hours, probably due to Covid-19.

A water wheel with a diameter of 11.2 m powers a rod drive system which extends 200 m forms a spectacular water-power system. There is also a wheelhouse built in 1828 and a school built in 1849.

The Våghuset (weighing house) is the meeting point for guided tours, which concentrate on the cultural aspects of mining. Especially the legends and fairy tales connected with the mining are told. People were affected by the mythical powers of the world, the supernatural was part of daily life.

The Storgruvan mine is also called Moon Mine, as it was the site of the self-sufficient moonbase analogue test project. The project was intended to explore techniques for building an underground base on the moon. Aspects of the research were to provide an environment with outdoor feeling for the inhabitants, to grow vegetables underground with sunlight transferred by optical fibers or with fluorescent light sources, mining and mineral extraction with minimal equipment, and much more. The project, like other moon related projects in the last years was quite ambitious and planned real mining on the moon until 2020. It's now 2022, and we are not aware of any moon related activity except some lies by a world-famous narcissists. Obviously a moon base is a bit more complicated than expected, and of course high energy prices and no revenue due to the lack of resources on the moon does not help. Nevertheless, such projects are always important for scientific research. As far as we know the project was never open to the public and has been removed completely.