Mining Area of the Great Copper Mountain in Falun - UNESCO ...

Grycksbo paper mill and Domnarvet iron works, as well as saw mills, electricity
production etc.
The Great Copper Mountain is amply documented and depicted in art, literature and
music. Ever since the mid-17th century, the company has commissioned and
collected portraits of eminent yeomen-miners, representatives of the arts, and Kings
and Queens of Sweden.
The Great Copper Mountain has a well-managed archive containing documents from
1347 onwards.
A museum of industrial history has existed at the Great Copper Mountain since
1922.
Part of the old mine workings has been a visitors’ mine since 1970.
The Great Copper Mountain is an ancient and important tourist attraction, the oldest
in Sweden. It has the first recorded mention in Sweden of the word “tourist” (in
1824). It has received numerous internationally famous visitors. Evidence of this
exists from 1615 onwards. As a tourist attraction and industrial monument, the
mining landscape rates three stars in the highly regarded Guide Michelin.
The Great Copper Mountain is listed as a historic building. The town of Falun is
subject to detailed development plans under the Planning and Building Act (PBL),
and parts of Kopparbergslagen are protected environments, listed as places of
national interest by the Swedish heritage management authority and thus regarded as
indispensable parts of our national heritage.
b. Possible comparative analysis
The comparable places of world interest known to us are the mining town of Röros
in Norway and Rammelsberg mine and the town of Goslar in Germany.
Röros, Norway, is a well-preserved wooden town with a copper mine and copper
smelting plant developed in the 17th century. Olofsgruvan (the Olof Mine) in Röros
is open to visitors. Röros has been on the World Heritage List since 1980. It is a
much younger and smaller mining-town than Falun and quite different in its
character.
The mines at Rammelsberg have a thousand-year history. The rich ore deposits of
Rammelsberg made Goslar an important trading town. The oldest parts of the town
are medieval and the existing buildings date from between the 15th and 19th
centuries. The Rammelsberg mines and the town of Goslar were listed as a site on
the UNESCO World Heritage List in 1992.
None of these, however, can rival the values possessed by the Great Copper
Mountain in Falun as an industrial monument and man-made landscape, by virtue of
its age, its history and its international significance.
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