Koskenkylän ruukinalue (Forsby bruksområde)

English translation (from the Finnish)

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Description

Situated along the Suuri Rantatie, on the banks of the lowest rapids of Forsbynjoki, the Koskenkylä ironworks area, with its sawmills, newer industrial buildings, manors surrounded by a park, offices and workers' housing, is still a functioning historical industrial area. The former sawmill building is among the first brick and concrete sawmills in Finland.

The Ruukinkartano main building, a Jugend-style manor designed in 1907 by the Swedish architect John Settergren, is one of the most significant Jugend-period manor buildings in Finland. A low wing and a tower with a curved top are attached to the cubic two-storey main body. The garden-side façade is connected, via terraces bordered by granite balustrades, to a geometrically laid-out garden, for which plans were drawn up by Paul Olsson (1919, 1930) and Bengt Schalin (1934). As part of the park there is a high wooded hill with burial chapels. A memorial stone has been erected to mark the site of the ironworks church.

Forsby ruukinkatu consists of the Suuri Rantatie, a road of medieval origin leading from Turku to Viipuri, which runs through the area. With its trees, it forms a unified whole despite the buildings of different ages.

On the western bank of the rapids, on the so-called Kuninkaanmäki and along the old main road, there are several large workers' barracks from around the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, as well as smaller workers' dwellings of various ages, the oldest of which are from the 18th century.

Only small ruins of hammer forges and power canals have survived from Yläruukki, at the rapids north of the ironworks area.

History

Count Lorenz Creutz received permission in 1682 to establish the Forsby ironworks on the lands of the Forsby rälssisäteri in Pernaja. Forsby Alaruukki was the main centre of ironworks activity. The sturdy dam of regular ashlar blocks that stood on the site of the old ironworks dam was partly demolished in the 1990s, and the rapids were restored to their natural state.

During the Lesser Wrath (1742-1743), the ironworks, located along the Turun-Viipurin valtatie, suffered considerable damage, and its operations were at a standstill until 1746. The silver of Koskenkylä is first mentioned in 1607, and silver was last mined in the mid-18th century.

The ironworks operations ceased in 1828, and sawmill operations were restarted in the 1870s. The sawmill, mill and several other buildings burned in 1873, but they were rebuilt.

A sawmill was evidently built immediately alongside the Forsby ironworks, which was established in 1682. The sawmill was officially established in 1736. Johan Askolin (1846-1912), an operator of a Porvoo trading firm, acquired the former ironworks manor and sawmill of Forsby, i.e. Koskenkylä, in 1880. The Koskenkylä water sawmill, which operated with turbines, was demolished in 1913 and replaced by a modern steam sawmill. The commercial counsellor's life's work was continued by Toiminimi Joh. Askolin, which further concentrated the company's activities on sawing, and from 1952 exclusively on the Isnäs sawmill.