Skantzen

For over 250 years, Skantzen in Hallstahammar has been the center of Strömsholm Canal. When the canal was first built, a place was needed to manage administration, ensure workers had good food and healthcare, and provide for their needs. Vegetables and fruit were grown for employees, wages and allowances were paid to widows and the sick, and medical care was available.
 

It all began in the 18th century when a young man named Johan Ulfström, who was passionate about Sweden’s waterways, rode along the Kolbäck River from Dalarna, through Västmanland, down to Lake Mälaren. He realized that the river, which connected 14 lakes from Grangärde in the north to Mälaren in the south, would be ideal for a canal. At the time, he was working on the Hjälmare Canal and understood the huge impact a canal would have on trade, making it much easier to transport iron and grain by boat rather than on poor, bumpy roads with horse-drawn wagons.
If a canal was built here, only 12 kilometers of digging would be needed to create a 170-kilometer waterway with 25 locks.
He immediately began drafting his idea and soon submitted a proposal for the canal between Smedjebacken and Borgåsund in Mälaren to the Bergskollegium (the Swedish Board of Mines).
The board took its time to respond—ten years, to be exact. But when they finally did, Johan Ulfström was given the responsibility of planning the canal, including maps, designs, and cost estimates. He was also put in charge of the entire construction and was officially named “Mekanikus.”
 

Johan Ulfström needed a place to live near the planned canal route, and Hallstahammar was chosen as the location. Here, several buildings were constructed for administration, timber drying, a carpentry workshop for building lock gates, a smithy for all the ironwork required for the canal, and, of course, the so-called “Mekanikus Residence” where Ulfström himself would live.
Stables and barns were needed for horses and cows, housing was built for the coachman and other workers, and a large food cellar was constructed to store provisions. A massive granary was also built for grain storage.
Eventually, around 40 buildings were erected, along with ample farmland and forest to sustain horses, cows, and sheep. The canal company essentially became a self-sufficient community within the larger society.
 

www.hembygd.se/svedvi-berg/
 
Strömsholms Canal>
 

Facts
Park area along the canal featuring a museum and the former residence of “Mekanikus.”
The site includes a canal museum, a school museum, a summer café, a themed park for children, and hiking and cycling trails along the canal. There is also an impressive double lock.
The area takes you back to the 1850s, with Skantzen and the canal forming part of the historical monument of Strömsholm Canal. Today, there are about 30 buildings and three museums offering guided tours year-round.