Ludvika Gammelgård & Mining Museum
In Ludvika on Nils Nils Street, you’ll find the Sjöbergska Mining Estate. Nils Nilsson and his relatives lived on and inherited the estate for 359 years. Even the name Nils was passed down. As early as the 1500s, a man named Nils lived here. It wasn’t until the late 1600s that a son was born who was given a different name—Pehr.
Pehr married Margareta, and they had nine children. However, Pehr passed away at a young age, leaving Margareta to manage the estate and mining operations. Historical records show that she was a formidable figure who handled numerous disputes in court and refused to be intimidated by anyone.
The mining estate, acquired by author Karl-Erik Forsslund in the 1920s on behalf of the Ludvika Heritage Society, dates back to the 1500s and still stands on its original site.
Beautiful baroque paintings from the time when Pehr and Margareta lived there can still be seen directly on the log walls of the main room.
Today, the estate functions as a heritage center and museum, with an intriguing interior and preserved outbuildings.
Author Karl-Erik Forsslund
Karl-Erik Forsslund was born in the late 1800s, a time of rapid societal transformation as industrialization began to take over. While some scholars worried that traditional rural culture would vanish without leaving a trace, others celebrated the new era for making life easier.
Initially, Forsslund supported the latter perspective. On his first visit to Skansen in Stockholm, which Artur Hazelius was then establishing, Forsslund declared it a “bankruptcy declaration of the Swedish people” and said everything displayed there was dead in the countryside.
However, a few years later, after secretly becoming engaged to his cousin Sofia—known as “Fejan”—Öhman, she influenced him to change his views. On a subsequent visit to Skansen, where he saw the Laxbro Cottage from his maternal lineage, he wrote that although he was against the concept, he unexpectedly found it enjoyable to walk around and explore. Over time, he grew increasingly critical of modern life.
When he married Fejan on June 23, 1898, they moved into a mining estate that her father gave them as a wedding gift, Storgården at Brunnsvik. This estate inspired his breakthrough book, *Storgården. A Book About a Home.*
In 1920, Forsslund co-founded the Ludvika Heritage Society. Alongside engineer Gustaf Björkman, he began collecting buildings, machinery, and tools from abandoned mines in the area, many of which were saved just in time. This effort led to the establishment of the Ludvika Mining Museum, which, when inaugurated in 1938, became the world’s first open-air industrial history museum.
The museum features a complete rod system with several turnbuckles to adjust direction and distribute power. Large wooden rods, driven by a waterwheel, transferred power to operate mine water pumps, for example.
Facts
Original mining estate and industrial history open-air museum founded by Karl-Erik Forsslund. Gammelgården is a miniature Skansen—without animals—but rich in material from mining life, mines, and blast furnaces. It is the world’s first industrial history open-air museum.
The museum features a horse-powered hoist with an ore bucket and a wooden headframe. The symbol of the entire site is a large waterwheel approximately 15 meters in diameter.
The site includes collections of old hand tools for drilling and loading, as well as drilling machines, loading machines, wagons, and locomotives for underground transport. There is also a new exhibition about iron processing and technology.
The museum houses Ecomuseum’s office and a Geological Mineral Museum.
Self-guided visits are available, with clear signage.
Saturday flea markets from May to September, 9 a.m.–3 p.m.
