Location: | Nordmark, 15 km north of Filipstad, 45 km south of Hagfors, 280 km west of Stockholm. Turn off towards Sandsjön then left into Hembygdsvägen. |
Open: |
APR to MAY Mon-Fri 11-17. JUN to AUG Mon-Fri 11-17, Sat, Sun 13-17. SEP Mon-Fri 11-17. OCT to MAR after appointment. [2007] |
Fee: | |
Classification: | Iron Mine |
Light: | Incandescent |
Dimension: | |
Guided tours: | |
Photography: | |
Accessibility: | |
Bibliography: | |
Address: | Nordmarks museum, Tel: +46-590-50404, Fax: +46-590-50904. 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. |
1413 | first written mention in a mining charter issued by King Erik XIII of Pomerania. |
1628 | order by the Swedish crown that all mines be surveyed. |
1890 | eleven mining fields and nine ironworks under operation. |
1894 | 2,664 people live in Nordmark Parish, most of them working in the mining and ore-processing industry. |
1980 | last mine in the Nordmark closed. |
2003 | 550 people live in Nordmark Parish. |
The main ore was black iron ore.
Nordmark is a number of villages and settlements covering an area of 5 km radius from the Nordmark Church. It was named after the channels which connect the abundant lakes, which are called nor in Swedish. In this area are some fifteen mining fields, each containing several mines, and five iron furnaces.
Mining started in the early Middle Ages. When the first written account mentions the mines, mining was already under way for a considerable time. It is impossible to determine the exact start of the mining. But this is most likely the place were the very first mines in Sweden existed. And in the first centuries a number of independent mine owners extracted ore from the same field. And each of those mines had its own name. When the mines were later united, they got names in plural.
The heyday of the mines was between 1650 and 1750, when the Filipstad mining district accounted for some 10% of the total world production of iron. The mining industry was a mayor employer and thousands of people lived directly from this industry. Today, after the industry is gone, the population has become much smaller.