Malingsbo bruksmiljö

Malingsbo ironworks

In the 1500s, when the Dutchman and Walloon Marcus Kock traveled across Europe in his youth to learn as much as possible about mining and coin-making, his future seemed bright. But suddenly, he ran into trouble with the head of the Polish judiciary. Eventually, he felt compelled to abandon the career he had planned for himself. It seemed better to find another source of income, as the risk of serious trouble was otherwise significant.

At that time, the Swedish king Gustav Adolf was in Prussia. Marcus Kock contacted him and was soon promised a position as a master of mint in Sweden, where he would likely be safer. In December 1626, Marcus Kock sailed to Sweden, accompanied by skilled craftsmen and equipped with his tools. Although Marcus’s main occupation in Sweden was as a master of mint, he quickly realized the profitability of investing in Swedish mining operations – not only to enrich himself but also to ensure that his sons could become industrial patrons.

In the beautiful landscape by the Hedströmmen River lay Malingsbo, an area previously inhabited by early slash-and-burn Finnish settlers and miners who built the first furnace here. Marcus Kock managed to purchase the hammer works in Malingsbo, along with large forested areas, ensuring he had the charcoal needed for the ironworks he wanted to establish.

Under Marcus, and later his son Daniel Kock’s ownership, Malingsbo transitioned from being a small ironworks to an industrial site with bustling activity, many employees, and day laborers. Marcus also built a grand wooden manor for himself and his family. However, like many wooden houses of that time, it burned down in 1699.

Daniel passed away as early as in year 1650, and his widow Anna Trotzig took over the operations, becoming an industrial patron. Although three generations of women owned Malingsbo Bruk over the next 50 years, it is their husbands who are mostly remembered in historical accounts. Anna Trotzig remarried Queen Christina’s personal physician and had a daughter, Anna the Younger von Wullen. When Anna Trotzig passed away, her daughter inherited Malingsbo Manor. Anna the Younger’s husband, Petter Snack, was the governor of Nyköping County and commissioned the construction of the chapel in Malingsbo, named St. Anna’s Chapel after the miners’ patron saint. Perhaps he also thought of his wife Anna when naming it.

In the early 1700s, a new main building was constructed, painted red with gray trims in the Carolinian style, which was popular at the time and named after King Charles XII, who ruled Sweden at the time.

Aside from the dams, not much of the iron production remains. However, the timber manor in the Carolinian architectural style is very well-preserved and considered one of the finest in Bergslagen. The oldest surviving building is a timbered grain warehouse from the 1670s, which was the only structure to survive a devastating fire in 1700. Further south, near the old country road, stands a whitewashed warehouse from 1849 with walls made of slag gravel. It features no fewer than 228 ventilation holes, each covered with an iron hatch. Inside the building is a freestanding grain screw, a frame with grain bins pierced by channels for airing the grain.

Today Malingsbo hosts a hostel, café, exhibitions, flea markets, and more during the summer. A popular recreational area with opportunities for camping, fishing, and forest walks.

Malingsbo Herrgård > (Swedish only)