Riddarhyttan is a

locality Locality may refer to: * Locality, a historical named location or place in Canada * Locality (association), an association of community regeneration organizations in England * Locality (linguistics) * Locality (settlement) * Suburbs and localitie ...

Skinnskatteberg Municipality Skinnskatteberg Municipality () is a municipality in Västmanland County in central Sweden. Its seat is located in the town of Skinnskatteberg. In 1952 a new greater municipality was created when "old" Skinskatteberg was merged with ''Gunnilbo' ...

Västmanland County Västmanland County () is a Counties of Sweden, county or ''län'' in central Sweden. It borders the counties of Södermanland County, Södermanland, Örebro County, Örebro, Gävleborg County, Gävleborg, Dalarna County, Dalarna and Uppsala Coun ...

, Sweden, with 431 inhabitants in 2010. It has an old iron mining tradition, which can be followed back to the last centuries before Christ. The last mine was closed down in 1979.

Geography and geology

Riddarhyttan is, along with

Skinnskatteberg Skinnskatteberg () is a locality and the seat of Skinnskatteberg Municipality in Västmanland County, Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern E ...

, one of only two urban areas or ''localities'' (more than 200 inhabitants) in the

in the western part of

, on the border to

Örebro County Örebro County () is a county or '' län'' in central Sweden. It borders the counties of Västra Götaland, Värmland, Dalarna, Västmanland, Södermanland and Östergötland. It is frequently culturally divided into the hilly northern region of ...

. It is located in the north of the historical province of

Västmanland Västmanland ( or ) is a historical Swedish province, or , in middle Sweden. It borders Södermanland, Närke, Värmland, Dalarna and Uppland. Västmanland means "West Man Land" or, less literally, "The Land of the Western Men", where the "we ...

. The area of the locality, as defined by

Statistics Sweden Statistics Sweden ( ; SCB, ) is the Swedish government agency operating under the Ministry of Finance and responsible for producing official statistics for decision-making, debate and research. The agency's responsibilities include: * developin ...

, is 1.56 km². The

Swedish national road 68 National Road 68 (), is a Swedish national road between Örebro in Örebro Municipality and Gävle in Gävle Municipality. The length of the road is 230 km. The road is important for long-distance driving, and is part of the most used route ...

is running through Riddarhyttan and the lake Lien is located next to it. It lies in the middle of the historically mining district

Bergslagen Bergslagen is a historical, cultural, and linguistic region located north of Lake Mälaren in northern Svealand, Sweden, traditionally known as a mining district. In Bergslagen, the mining and metallurgic industries have been important since t ...

. It is about 30 km to

Fagersta Fagersta is a locality and the seat of Fagersta Municipality in Västmanland County, Sweden, with 11,130 inhabitants in 2010. Geography The city is located at the junction of two railways between Ludvika-Västerås and Avesta (Krylbo)-Örebro ...

, 35 km to

Lindesberg Lindesberg () is a locality and the seat of Lindesberg Municipality, Örebro County, Sweden with 9,672 inhabitants in 2017. History Lindesberg has centuries old history, being the center of an old mining district. The earliest known trace ...

and 70 km to

Västerås Västerås () is a city in central Sweden on the shore of Mälaren, Lake Mälaren in the province of Västmanland, west of Stockholm. The city had a population of 127,799 at the end of 2019, out of the municipal total of 158,653, over 100,000 mo ...

. When the last ice age in Bergslagen came to an end about 9,500 years ago, Riddarhyttan was located on the border between land and sea. That resulted in kettles,

glacial erratic A glacial erratic is a glacially deposited rock (geology), rock differing from the type of country rock (geology), rock native to the area in which it rests. Erratics, which take their name from the Latin word ' ("to wander"), are carried by gla ...

s and other specific landforms. When the ice was melting, iron was released from the bedrock into the groundwater and became exposed iron oxide (ochre). That gave rise to a red-colour soil in some parts of Riddarhyttan, especially in the area called ''Röda Jorden'' (''red earth'').

History

People started to extract iron from the red earth in the Riddarhyttan area sometime between 700 BCE and 400 BCE, which makes it the oldest area with ironworks in the

region. Remains of several primitive

blast furnace A blast furnace is a type of metallurgical furnace used for smelting to produce industrial metals, generally pig iron, but also others such as lead or copper. ''Blast'' refers to the combustion air being supplied above atmospheric pressure. In a ...

s have been found and the age have been established by

carbon dating Radiocarbon dating (also referred to as carbon dating or carbon-14 dating) is a method for determining the age of an object containing organic material by using the properties of radiocarbon, a radioactive isotope of carbon. The method was ...

. The iron-making was carried on until about 0 CE. The locality Riddarhyttan dates back to the

Middle Ages In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the 5th to the late 15th centuries, similarly to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire and ...

. ''Hälsingegruvan'' and ''Munkhyttan'' was mentioned as early as 1420. It was the State that first commenced mining in the area but private persons, or ''Bergsmän'', were granted to use the mines later on. In 1611, Thomas Hammarsmed was granted the right to erect a forge and an iron blast-furnace.''Iron and steel in Sweden'', pp. 65–66

References

;Citations ;Sources *

External links

riddarhyttan.nu
* Images o
KällfalletBäckegruvan
an
Bastnäs
by Jakob Ehrensvärd {{Authority control Populated places in Skinnskatteberg Municipality