Harg ironworks

The founding and the Walloon forging

The Lord High Admiral Count Gustaf Otto Stenbock received privileges in 1668 to establish a hammer mill and blast furnace at Harg in northern Uppland. The location along the Hargsån river was well chosen: the water power was reliable, the charcoal resources good and the coast near enough for transporting the finished iron to Stockholm and onwards out into the world. Production was organised with Walloon smithies – the technique that the Walloon immigrants had brought with them from present-day Belgium – and with German hammer-smithing traditions that complemented the Walloon forging methods.

Ironworking took place at three locations: at Stockby in Harg, at Bennebol in Bladåker and at Hillevik in Gästrikland. The pig iron smelted in the blast furnace was refined into bar iron, which was then shipped to Stockholm and exported onwards. Harg's bar iron was known for its quality and fetched good prices on the European market.

Russian fire and rebuilding

In 1719 Harg was struck by one of the worst consequences of the Great Northern War's devastation: the Russian fleet burned down all the buildings except the church. It was a devastation that knocked the legs out from under the ironworks' operations for more than a decade. Not until 1730, when Eric Oxenstierna acquired Harg, did the ironworks get going in earnest again. Under the Oxenstierna family, Harg experienced its heyday.

In the 1760s, Carl Oxenstierna had the present manor erected to drawings by the architect Elias Kessler. The well-proportioned 18th-century house, with its wing buildings and surrounding park, testifies to the ironworks aristocracy's taste and prosperity. Bar iron production finally ceased in 1921, after which operations turned to forestry and farming.

Preserved ironworks setting

Harg ironworks is one of the Walloon ironworks where the physical remains are unusually well preserved. The Walloon smithies still have their original exteriors intact, and in the Upper Hammer both hearths and bellows remain – rare traces of how the iron was shaped. The iron warehouse (Järnboden), an impressive five-storey stone building from the mid-1700s, was erected to store the bar iron while it waited for transport to Stockholm. Its solid construction has stood the test of centuries.

Harg ironworks is located along the Uppland coast, not far from Hargshamn and the Baltic Sea. The well-preserved manor setting and the industrial remains together give a picture of what a prosperous 18th-century ironworks meant – not just a factory, but a whole community with clear hierarchies, professional skill and aesthetic ambitions.