In Dalarna north of Stockholm lies Falun Copper Mine. Today a world heritage site and no longer active, historically the mine has been a source of much of Sweden’s wealth. Copper has been excavated there for maybe a thousand years, we don’t know exactly for how long as later activity has eradicated traces of the earliest operations. Major mine shafts collapsed in the 17th century and created the big hole in the ground that greets you today when you arrive.
The men knowing how to produce copper from the ground, called Bergsmen, had great influence. Gustav Vasa fled there from the Danes and raised an army to kick out King Kristian II of Denmark following the Stockholm Bloodbath. Rebellions have started there and many a ruler and regent in Stockholm feared the anger of the mountain men. Even if Stockholm usually won and Dalarna lost a generation of young men.
We visited Falun Copper Mine first time in 2020. Because of the pandemic we didn’t get to go underground. Instead we walked the trail along the edge of the mine. This year on our way home from the Swedish High Coast, we stopped in Falun for the tour of the mine.
On a day when the heat wave hit Sweden, spending one hour underground in fridge level temperatures was quite refreshing. You book a tour and join a guide that takes you through tunnels and caves, all excavated by men over centuries and much of it by hand. The guide tells you appropriate stories of ghosts and goats and kings and queens.
The story I find most intriguing is that of Fet Mats. A miner who went on unsolicited excavation to make a little extra, only to never come back. They found him 40 years later, or rather his body. It looked like he had died recently and no workers were missing so they were quite puzzled to identify him until an old woman stepped forward and recognised him as his fiancee. What’s most intriguing is what happened afterwards. His body was put on display in a cabinet as a curiosity for decades and only in 1930 did he find his final resting place.
As we descended, my oldest said it reminded him of Moria. You know the mines where the dwarves dug too deep. I’m pretty sure the team behind the Lord of the Rings franchise visited Falun for research. Not sure if Tolkien did.
The mining operations ended in 1992 and the site was made the UNESCO World Heritage list in 2001. A museum tells the story of the mine with working models demonstrating mechanical principles and machinery.
