Fiskars and Billnäs

It was my birthday today and we made a trip to two of the southern Finland's old ironworks towns Fiskars and Billnäs. Weather was hot and sunny.

First we drove to Fiskars. There were couple of art exhibitions, small art and cfafts shops, restaurants and historic buildings. In the picture there is Fiskars' mill, which was built in 1898. 

It is known that Fiskars already had a mill before the ironworks was founded in 1649. The current mill was drawn by the architect Waldemar Aspelin, whose father had worked as a manager in Fiskars in 1859-1882. Building materials were provided by the ironworks. Slag tiles were the side products of manufacturing iron in the puddling furnace at Fiskars rolling mill, and the red tiles came from the ironworks’ own tile factory.

The mill was used extensively by the farmers of the surrounding areas. Even the fishermen from the archipelago brought their grain to be ground at the mill using waterways. In addition to grinding grain, grits were made by a steam rolling mill. Power was provided by a steam engine . 

Up until 1940, when grain became rationed, part of the workers’ salary was paid in grain. The mill had two large chests, one for rye and wheat and one for oats. 

Billnäs is only about 10 km from Fiskars. We had a short stroll there and then started our journey back home. 


+27,4°C, sunny