Savon järvimalmiruukit

English translation (from the Finnish)

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Description

Savo lake-ore ironworks are an important part of Finnish industrial history. They reflect the emergence of a new centre of iron production in Eastern Finland, where the source of iron was lake ore and bog ore.

In the first half of the 19th century, a number of ironworks using lake ore and bog ore were established in Eastern and Northern Finland. The most notable ironworks in the North Savo area are Jyrkkä in Sonkajärvi, Salahmi in Vieremä, and Souru in Karttula, and in South Savo, Haapakoski in Pieksänmaa. Juantehdas (Strömsdal) ironworks at Juankoski is the oldest and best-preserved ironworks complex in Finland that used lake ore. See separate entry Juantehdas.

The history and construction of the Salahmi ironworks in Vieremä, founded in 1807, have left their mark on the area and shaped it into a cultural landscape ensemble. The production buildings on the east bank of the river and the blast furnace area at the edge of the lowest rapids are fenced off as an ancient monument area. Above the dam, on the east bank, is also the splendid Empire-style ironworks manor Herrala, and north of it the old ironworks office. At the highest point of the hill above the manor stands a fine grey stone cowshed built in 1858, along with a few red-ochre-painted log outbuildings. The immediate slope below the manor has been planted as a birch forest.

The Jyrkkäkoski ironworks in Sonkajärvi, founded in 1831, is located at a rapids between Kiltuanjärvi and Haapajärvi. The ironworks' blast furnaces, other production buildings and ironworks manor are on the edge of the rapids on both sides of a dam bridge. On Masuuninsaari island in the middle of the rapids are the ruins of the oldest blast furnace in the area, built in 1835. The newer blast furnace on the east bank of the rapids dates from 1874. It was joined by a bar-iron and nail forge. Next to the blast furnace chimney is a mill built in 1938, to which a sawmill and a shingle planer were later attached. Part of the production buildings has been reconstructed. In the forest on the east side of the rapids are charcoal kilns. The surroundings are beautiful, partly park-like river scenery. Lystisaari and Lemmensaari islands in the rapids have traditionally been used for recreation.

The area of the Haapakoski ironworks in Pieksänmaa, founded in 1842, still contains, as a reminder of ironworks activity, a blast furnace, brick-built factory buildings, the ironworks manor, office buildings and a group of workers' residential buildings from the late 19th century and the early 20th century. South of the ironworks area are extensive grazing meadows of significant landscape value. In addition, the factory area includes an irregularly shaped residential building, the so-called Keisarinnan sauna, moved from Huutokoski.

Of the Souru ironworks in Karttula, founded in 1868, which was located on the shore of Kuttajärvi in the village of Syvänniemi, only a fine brick chimney 25 metres high remains, together with the foundations of numerous buildings that belonged to a compact community.

History

Finland's oldest ironworks - Mustio, Anskuu, Suitia, Billnäs - depended on domestic iron. In the second half of the 17th century, ore was imported from Sweden. The incorporation of Finland into Russia endangered the import of iron from Sweden, and in Finland alternative means of obtaining the raw material had to be sought. St Petersburg, moreover, offered large markets for various products. Raising ore from lakes was still cheaper than mined ore in the mid-19th century. Exploiting iron ore in lakes and bogs led to the founding of new ironworks in the lake districts of Eastern Finland - Juankoski 1746, Salahmi 1810, Jyrkkäkoski 1831, Haapakoski 1842, Huutokoski 1859, Souru 1868.

Juankoski ironworks, Strömsdals bruk, came into being in 1746, and the ironworks' heyday began in 1851, when the Russian court councillor Anastasia Ponomareva bought it. After the Saimaan kanava was completed, stoves, cooking pots, pans and other household goods found their way from Juankoski to the St Petersburg markets. Pig iron, agricultural machinery and turbines were also sent from the ironworks. A groundwood mill and a steam sawmill were built in connection with the ironworks. Operations at the Juantehdas ironworks continued until the 1920s, employing at most 500 people. Industrial activity is continued today by the fine paperboard mill Strömsdal Oyj. (See separate entry Juankoski / Juantehdas.)

Peasant iron-making began on the lands of the Salahmi tax farm, which belonged to Iisalmi parish, in 1807. In addition to a bloomery hytti, the Dahlström brothers had a dam, a bloomery hammer, a forge, a sawmill and a mill built along the banks of the Murennusjoki. Salahmi was bought in 1828 by the merchant and shipowner Zachris Franzén, whose period was the heyday of Salahmi. It became the centre of a wide ironworks enterprise, which included the auxiliary bloomeries of Saarikoski, Nissilä and Kauppilanjoki (Ostokoski), and the blast furnace of Jyrkkäkoski. Paul Wahl & Co, owner of the Varkaus ironworks, bought Salahmi in 1874. A new, impressive Scottish-style blast furnace was completed at the ironworks as early as the following year, which supplied pig iron to the Varkaus factories. The Varkaus rolling mill burned in 1908, and operations at Salahmi ended. Somewhat later, the ironworks passed to A. Ahlström Oy, along with many other establishments and a large landed estate of Paul Wahl & Co.

The operation of the Jyrkkäkoski lake-ore ironworks began in 1831, when Franzen, owner of the Salahmi ironworks, received permission to build a blast furnace and a bloomery hammer. A new Scottish-type blast furnace was built on the ironworks site of English bricks in 1874. The ironworks produced pig iron and bloom iron, as well as nails and cast goods. At the beginning of the 20th century the ironworks even had its own small steamship. The Jyrkkäkoski ironworks operated until 1909 and for a short time still during the First World War. The last smelting took place in March 1918.

The Haapakoski iron works was founded in 1842 by Captain Johan Fredrik Molander. At that time a blast furnace, a bloomery hammer and a nippulaitos were built. The works was sold in 1857 to the St Petersburg merchant Nikolai Putilov, from whom the works was redeemed by the state in 1872. The present factory was founded in 1905. The ironworks' old blast furnace still survives, and factory buildings were built in the area in the 20th century. The site was restored in 1995-97.

The Souru ironworks was started in 1868 by the Russian noblemen Semjannikov and Poletika. Steam-powered, the ironworks produced pig iron for the Nevan konepaja in Pietari, where warships and locomotives were manufactured. At its peak in 1896, the Souru ironworks had 200 employees, and the factory and its surroundings formed a tight community with housing and service buildings (such as a school, hospital and library). The ironworks' blast furnace was famous for its long iron-making blasts: for example, the blast begun in 1881 lasted 952 days. Iron was produced at the ironworks until 1908, after which Oy H. Saastamoinen Ltd. from Kuopio bought the ironworks and carried out charcoal burning there. The Souru factory was almost entirely demolished in 1941, but the sites of the buildings and structures are still visible in the terrain.