Not far from where I live lies Vinterviken ("Winter-cove"). This is where Alfred Nobel built his first factory to mass produce nitroglycerin, or demolition oil as he called it. The key ingredient in dynamite.
The location was chosen carefully, a deep water cove in between large hills and not far from the centre of Stockholm. Barracks for workers were constructed on the other side of the hill. Over the early years, the site was marred by lethal accidents that eventually led to critical steps of the production process taking place inside tunnels. What is left today is fundamentally holes in the ground, very appropriately.
The site is also close to Alphaspel, a well assorted local shop with RPG and boardgames. So a sunny afternoon in March I combined my interests and visited both.
Technical progress and industrial development have formed the life in the present in such profound ways. While still there is a tendency for us to think of former industrial sites as ugly, polluted and dangerous. To study the past to understand the present, you must also look at what is not appreciated for its beauty.
The site at Vinterviken was active until 1980.
Really like the last picture.
Thanks, Lise.