AA - Finland's Iron Working Heritage

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FINLAND'S IRON WORKING HERITAGEAuthor(s): J. M. RichardsSource: AA Files, No. 12 (Summer 1986), pp. 41-45Published by: Architectural Association School of ArchitectureStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/29543516Accessed: 19-08-2014 20:29 UTC

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2/6

FINLAND S

IRONWORKING

HERITAGE

J.

M. Richards

/.

Aerial

view

of

the

iron-working

estate

at

Mttstio.

The

production

of

iron in

Finland,

which

began

on

an

industrial

scale

early

in the seventeenth

century,

flourished

especially

in

the

eighteenth

when

over

fifty

ronworks

were

established

in

rural

areas.

They

took the form of self-contained

estates,

each

equipped

with

a

central

building

which

was

also the

home

of

the

ironmaster,

various industrial

buildings

such

as

hammer

mills, foundries and blast-furnaces, and aworkers village. The last,

basically

a

street

of

one-storey

houses,

also had

a

church,

a

school

and

in

some

instances

a

village shop.

There

was

usually

a

small farm

serving

the needs of the

village.

The

most

important

ironworking

estates

were

sited

in

the

extreme

south-west

of Finland

in

the

province

ofUusimaa. Several

survive in

a

fairly complete

form and

provide

a

revealing

illustration of the social

history

of their time and of

the characteristic

landscapes they

created.

A

few,

for

example

those

at

Fiskars and

Billn?s,

near

the

sea-coast

on

either side of the road fromHelsinki

to

Hanko,

still

produce

iron.

One of

the

most

accessible,

at

Fagervik

close

by, right

on

the

coast,

still

with

its

village,

its

hurch and

its

great

house,

is

now

the

centre

of

a

flourishing agricultural

estate.

In

others

the houses that

lay

at

their

centre

survive

as

country

residences

or

the

headquarters

of

industrial

or

agricultural

enterprises.

Most

of the

estates

were

sited

in

forested

country

for the

sake of

the

charcoal

required

for their

furnaces,

and close

to

fast-running

water,

the

source

of their

energy.

They

were

within reach of the

coast

because the

iron-ore

they

used

was

transported by

sea

from

Sweden.

In

earlier centuries

small

quantities

of iron

for

domestic

use

had been

manufactured from local

ore,

obtained from lakes

or

wetlands,

but

this activitywas superseded by thediscovery in the seventeenth cen?

tury

of

vast ore

deposits

in

Sweden

and

by

the

development

of

the blast-furnace.

By

the end of that

century

Sweden

was

the

biggest

producer

of iron in

Europe.

The first ndustrial

plant

of

any

kind inFinland

was

the ironworks

at

Mustio

on

the

Karjaa

river,

in

the

same

south-western

area as

the

three

somewhat later

estates

already

named and

at

a

point

where three

sets

of

rapids

furnished

exceptional

water-power.

The

Mustio works

were

founded

in 1618

by

a

decree of

King

Gustavus

11

Adolphus

of

Sweden,

but

they

soon

passed

from

royal ownership

into the hands of

successive

merchants from

Turku,

the Finnish

capital,

and

it

was

in

their time that iron-ore

began

to

be

shipped

from

Sweden

and the fin?

ished

products exported

there.The works thereafter

steadily expanded

to

become

a

large

estate

(Fig.

1).

hey

had their

ups

and downs

?

for

example

a

shortage

of

charcoal

which

caused

the

blast-furnace

to

be

AA

Hl.KS

12

41

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3/6

2.

The

central

building

t

Mustioy

1783,

by

.F.Schr?derandErik

Palmstedt.

closed

temporarily

in

1698

but

they

flourished

especially

under the

ownership

of the Linder

family

from

the

mid-eighteenth

century

until the

production

of bar-iron

came to

an

end

in

1900.

Itwas Magnus Linder who in 1783commissioned the pedimented

central

building

(Fig.

2)

which

still

stands.

It

is

an

indication

of

the

important place

that the iron

industry

held

in

the Finnish

economy

that

at

this

time

leading

architects

were

engaged

to

design

itsbuild?

ings.

The central

building

at

Mustio

was

by

Christoffer

Friedrich

Schr?der,

a

German-born architect who

practised

in

Turku,

and

it

was

remodelled

soon

afterwards

by

Erik

Palmstedt,

city

architect

of

Stockholm.

It

is

built

all

of

timber and

was

one

of

the handsomest

residences

in the

country,

with

a

long

pilastered

facade

and rich

interior

furnishings.

In

the

great

salon

are

wall-paintings

ofRoman

scenes

by

Louis

Jean

Desprez

which

commemorate

a

visit

by

King

Gustavus.

Desprez,

as well as

being

the

king s

architect,

was his

appointed

stage-painter.

The central

building

at

Mustio

is

enclosed

by

the

curve

of

the river.

Nearby

are

stables and other outhouses

and

a

slender

bridge.

To

the

west

are

a

Gothic-style gatehouse

and

a

church

of

1757.

In

this

instance

there

are

only

slight

remains

of

the

original

industrial

buildings

and of theworkers

housing

laid

out

in

the

early

nineteenth

century.

The other

buildings

seen

in

the aerial

photograph

were

added

later

by

the industrial

company

which

now owns

the

whole

estate.

Mustio

was

too

far from the

sea

to

be ideal for

the

necessary

com?

munication with Sweden, and later in the seventeenth century three

important

ironworks

surrounded

by

similar

estates

were

established

a

little further

south.

These

were

the

estates

of

Billn?s,

Fiskars

and

Fagervik

already

referred

to.

The founder of all three

was

the

German-Swedish merchant Carl

Billsten,

who

was

responsible

for

a

considerable

expansion

of the

ironmaking industry, especially

in

the

i68os

when

government

help

was

offered

to

develop

it.As

a

result,

by

the

beginning

of

the

eighteenth

century

there

were

fifteen ironworks

in Finland, eight of which incorporated blast-furnaces. Annual

production

was

only

about

a

thousand

tons

?

small

compared

with

Sweden s

production

?

but it

established

Finland

as an

industrial

country.

After

being temporarily eclipsed during

the Swedish

King

Charles

xn s

wars

against

Russia,

several of

its

installations

including

those

at

Fagervik being

destroyed

in

the

fighting,

the

ironworking industry

continued

to

expand, again

with the

help

of

prominent

Swedish

merchants.

Among

these

were

the brothers

Hising

?

Johan

Wilhelm

and Michael

?

who in

1723

acquired

the Billn?s and

Fagervik

works

from the Billsten

family, together

with

a

blast-furnace

on

the

sea-coast

at

Skogby

which theBillstens had built in 1686.This isone of the few

old

blast-furnaces

operating

in

Finland

today.

Fagervik

had

an

ideal

situation,

near

the

sea

and

on a

fast-running

river.

Under

the

management

of Michael

Hising s

son

Johan,

who

took

over

in

1758,

the works entered their

period

of

greatest

pros?

perity.

The blast-furnace

was

rebuilt and

new

types

of hammer

installed,

and

in

1780

a

brick-built

tin-plating workshop

was

added.

This is

one

of

a

number of old

buildings

still

surviving

at

Fagervik.

It

was

Johan

Hising,

too,

who built themain

building

(Fig.

3),

forwhich

again

the architect

was

Schr?der of

Turku. The

two-storey

buildings

flanking the approach to themain block, one righton the lake shore,

were

constructed

first,

n

1762;

then the

three-storey

main

block

with

itscentral

pediment

in

1772.

As

at

Mustio,

there is

a

Gustavus

m

room

in

which the

king stayed overnight

in

1775;

also

a

Chinese cabinet and

a

library.



4/6

3.

The central

building

t

Fagervik,

1772,

y

C.

F.

Schr?der.

4.

left:

The church

nd

bell-tower

(1737,

by

.F.Schultz)

t

Fagervik,

with the entral

buildingbeyond,

ight:

The

bell-tower

eside the ake.

43



5/6

5.

Billn?s: The

street

of

ironworkers houses.

6.

Fiskars: tahle

building

of1826.

It

was

at

this time

that the Finnish

ironworks

began

their

trans?

formation

into

large

landed

estates

with

spacious parks

surrounding

the lakes that

were

created

by

damming

to

ensure

for each

its

necessary

head of

water.

Johan

Hising regarded

himself

as

a

landed

proprietor

as

well

as an

industrialist,

and

at

Fagervik

he laid

out

gardens

and

planted specimens

of

rare

trees.

He

built

a

vinery

and

hothouses

in

which he

grew

lemons and

oranges.

He

extended the

existing

woodlands

to

form

a

fashionably

romantic

landscape.

Among

thewoods

a

Chinese

pavilion

still

survives.

The

Fagervik

estate

is

approached

from the

public

road

by

a

lane

through

woods,

which

soon

becomes

a

village

street

linedwith iron?

workers

cottages,

timber built and

shingle

roofed.

A

corner

of

one

of

these

cottages

can

be

seen

in

Fig.

4,

which shows the

village

church

at

the end

of

the lane

where

it

emerges

at

the

lake-shore,

beyond

which

stands

the

great

house. The

church,

designed

by

Johan

Friedrich

Schulz,

was

built in

1737 and,

like

nearly

every

village

church

in

Finland, has a separate bell-tower. Again, both church and tower are

wholly

of timber

on

rough

field-stone

foundations,

and

a stone

lower

storey

in

the

case

of

the

bell-tower.

A

walled

graveyard

contains the

proprietors family

tomb. The

iron-making buildings

that

survive,

together

with the bar-iron hammer

and

hearths,

are

in

a

poor

state

of

preservation.

Production

stopped

in

1902.

The

Billn?s

estate at

Pinjainen

close

by,

beside

a

twenty-foot

waterfall

on

the

Karjaa

river,

passed,

like the

Fagervik

estate,

from the

Billsten

to

the

Hising

family,

who

managed

it

until

1898.

It

became

well known for the

mass

production

of

tools,

especially

axes

and

spades,

and

later for office furniture after

it

had become

part

of

a

larger

industrial

enterprise

owned

by

a

company

based

on

the Fiskars

works.

At

Billn?s

a

few of the

early

iron-making buildings

survive,

together

with

a street

of

eighteenth-century

workers

cottages

(Fig.

5),

not

unlike those

at

Fagervik

but

with tiled

roofs.

The central build?

ing,designed by

Sebastian

Gripenberg,

was

burnt

down

in

1915.

Fiskars,

in

contrast,

the

only

one

of the old Finnish

iron-working

estates

where the

production

of iron is itsmain

activity

today,

retains

a

number

of

old

buildings

of

various

dates but

mostly

of the

early

nineteenth

century.

They

include

an

ambitious brick-built stable

building

of

1826

(Fig.

6)

with

a

gabled

central block crowned

by

a

clock-turret, a building (1828) by the most famous of all Finnish

architects,

theGerman-born Carl

Ludwig Engel,

a

school

and

some

workers

houses,

all

strung

along

the

ironworks road. The

present

main

residential

building

is later than those

described

above,

having

been built

in 1816

by

the then

owner,

Ludwig

Bj?rkman,

to

replace

a

central

building

of

1765

which

is

now

the

manager s

office.

Bj?rkman

first commissioned the architect Pehr

Granstedt,

but

being

dissatis?

fiedwith his

drawings

he turned

to

Carlo

Francesco

Bassi,

the Italian

born

architect,

Swedish

trained,

who became

city

architect of Turku

and

later,

under the

Russians,

Controller

of

Public Works for the

whole

Grand

Duchy

of

Finland

?

a

post

inwhich

Engel

later

suc?

ceeded him. Bassi s mansion is in the

neo-classical

style

that

he and

Engel

introduced intoFinland.

Bj?rkman

commissioned

Engel

to

add

flanking buildings

to

the

main

block

on

the

same

lines

as

those

at

Fagervik,

but these

were never

built.

The

Fiskars

ironworks,

which suffered

more

than

most

in

the

fightingduring

Charles

xn s

wars,

was

laid

out

afresh

in

the

1760s

and

was

notable for

producing

copper

as

well

as

iron; indeed,

during

its

ownership

by

the

Bj?rkman

family,

copper

became

its

main

product.

By

the end of the

eighteenth

century

the

family

had become the

proprietors

of iron and

copper

mines and

workshops

in several

parts

of Finland. Then in 1808war came again, resulting in theRussian

conquest

of Finland.

This,

surprisingly,

had little effect

on

the

iron

making

industry.

Iron-ore

arid

pit-iron

continued

to

be

brought

in

from

Sweden,

and the

Russian

authorities

in

control of the

new

Grand

Duchy

of

Finland,

which had been

given

autonomous status

44

AA

FILES

12



6/6

nHHw*^

;i

ill

ill

HI^^H

7.

The central

building

t

Orisberg,

1804,

by

.

olm.

within the Russian

Empire, encouraged

the

industry

and

even

established

new

ironworks

in

the

eastern

part

of the

country,

using

local

ore

obtained from

lakes.

The

employment

of the

most

eminent architects

to

design buildings

in the Finnish ironworking estates reflects the great prestige that

attached

to

the

industry

from

the

beginning.

Their work

is

by

no

means

limited

to

Mustio,

Fiskars

and

the

other

estates

just

described.

In

others

of

the old

estates

where

ironworking

activities

have

long

ceased the central ironmaster s

building

survives;

in

fact,

several of

the

architecturally

most

notable

country

houses

in

Finland

were

originally

the

centre

of

ironworking

estates.

An

example

is

Orisberg

(Fig.

7),

far

to

the north of

the

region

in

which

most

of

the

iron?

works

were

clustered.

It is

near

the

west coast

in

the

province

of

Ostrobothnia,

not

far from

the

sea-port

town

ofVaasa.

Though

now

removed

from

any industry,

it stands beside

its lake

in

a

thickly

wooded

park.

Nearby,

also

on

the shore of

the

lake,

are

a

classical

pavilion

and

an

old

water-mill. The

mansion

was

built in

1804,

probably

to

the

design

of

a

Swedish

architect,

I.

Holm,

still in the

style

ofGustavus

in

although

by

then the neo-classical

style

was

beginning

to

establish

itself n the

capital.

The

Orisberg

ironworks

are

interesting

historically

because

their

foundation

in 1688

was

an

attempt

to

free

the Finnish iron

industry

from

dependence

on

Swedish

ore,

following

the

discovery

of

iron-ore

deposits

in this

province.

The initiative

was

taken

by

officials

of

the

port

of

Vaasa,

but

production

was

not

started until

they

were

joined

by theStockholm merchant Anders Onckel and a blast-furnace and a

bar-hammer

were

built.

It

was

not,

however,

until

near

the end of the

eighteenth

century

that

theworks

began

to

flourish,

because the local

ore

proved

inadequate

and the blast-furnace

was

closed and

pig-iron

brought

in

from Sweden.

However,

in

1783

the

Orisberg

works

and

the house and

estate

were

acquired

by

the

Bj?rkman family,

and

although

the blast-furnace

was not

restarted

the

workshops

were

rebuilt,

depending

on

the

Bj?rkman

blast-furnace

and

hammer-mills

at

Kimo,

even

furthernorth

but

nearer

the

sea.

These

were

then the

most

modern

in inland.

It

was

BengtMagnus Bj?rkman

and

his

son

Lars

Magnus

who built

the house

that

stands

there

now.

He

was

a

proprietor

with the

same

sense

of

social

responsibility

as

those who controlled

the

many

iron?

works in

usimaa.

He

built

a

church

(designed

for

him

in

1832

y

Carl

Ludwig

Engel),

a

school and the usual workers

housing.

Iron

manu

8.

Noormarkku:

Proprietor s

residence,

1877,

by

E.

Lagerspetz.

facture ceased in

1900.

The mansion with the

estate

surrounding

it

is

now

an

agricultural college.

Further down the

west

coast,

near

the

seaport

town

of Pori

in

the

province

of

Satakunta,

stands

an

especially interesting

nineteenth

century ironworking estate. This isNoormarkku, one of the last

ironworks

to

be founded

under the

Swedish

regime.

It

began

in 1806

as

a

bar-iron

works,

relying

on

pig-iron

from Sweden

since it had

no

blast-furnace.

It

was

acquired

in

1870

by

the industrialist Antti

Ahlstr?m,

who added

sawmilling

to

the

enterprise

and built

up

from

this

beginning

one

of the

largest

industrial

empires

in

Finland,

operating

in

many

parts

of the

country.

The Noormarkku

estate

is

now

mostly agricultural,

but

many

of the

early buildings

survive.

Most

notable

are a

succession of

large

houses,

built

in the

tradition of

the

central

buildings

fromwhich the earlier ironworks

were

run

and

providing

homes for different

generations

of the Ahlstr?m

family.

The oldest

(Fig.

8),

built

in

1877

or

ntti

Ahlstr?mhimself

by

the

architect Evert

Lagerspetz,

is

a

striking example

of

the

ornate

timber

architecture of the

period,

with

gabled

front and

corner

turret.

Its

style

of

embellishment,

derived from the invention and

ingenuity

that

had become characteristic of the

carpenter s

trade,

is the

same

style

that

was once

employed

in

town

architecture

all

over

Finland,

examples

ofwhich

have

been fast

disappearing

in

recent

years.

Happily,

the tradition

represented

in

all these

Finnish

ironworks

of

engaging

the

most

eminent architects

to

design

the administrators

mansions

persisted

after

the

iron-making industry

had declined

?

persists in fact almost to this day. At Billn?s (see above) a new

mansion

was

built in

1917

to

replace

the

one

that had been burnt

down,

and the architect

was

Lars

Sonck,

the leaderwith Eliel Saarinen

of the

Romantic

Nationalist school which

put

new

life into Finnish

architecture

from

1900

onwards. Then

in

1939

still

another mansion

was

built

on

the

estate

at

Noormarkku: the Villa

Mairea,

the

most

celebrated house

by

the architect

Alvar

Aalto,

who

designed

it

for

Antti Ahlstr?m s

grand-daughter.

The above

account

is based

on

the author s

own

researches

in

Finland,

but he is

greatly

indebted for

many

historical facts and

figures

to

Mr

Asko

Salokorpi

of theMuseum of

Finnish Architecture atHelsinki. Mr

Salokorpi

was

responsible

for an exhibition on

this

subject

held

at

theMuseum in

1979.and

wrote

the excellent

catalogue, published,

however,

only

in

Finnish.

Figs.

4

(right),

7

and

8

are

by

the

author.

The remainder

are

by

courtesy

of

the

Museum of Finnish

Architecture,

Helsinki.

AA

FILES 12

45


Documents

AA - Finland's Iron Working Heritage