Details
Founded: 1746Category: Industrial sites in Finland
Historical period: The Age of Enlightenment (Finland)
Interesting Sites Nearby
User Reviews
In 1746 Brynolf Brunou was granted to establish an ironworks to the Juankoski rapids. Juankoski was in the periphery of Sweden borderlands with no roads or cities. Water routes were the only way to transport goods. Juankoski became the only ironworks in Finland which used only the bog iron to manufacture different kind of tools.
The heyday of Juankoski was between 1851 and 1900 when it was owned by Anastasia Ponomareva, a Russian aristocrat. In her time the manufacturing process became more efficient and better transport routes were built to ship products. The village around grown to 1,000 inhabitants. The iron manufacturing ended in 1915 when Juankoski was acquired by Kemi Oy and moved to carton mill.
The ironworks area is a well-preserved sample of the industrialism history in Finland. The oldest building is the empire-style mansion built in 1826. The blast furnace is today a museum exhibiting the life of the ironworks society. There are also a bakery, cafe and handicraft shops. Guided walking tours are available in summer season.
Visby Cathedral (also known as St. Mary’s Church) is the only survived medieval church in Visby. It was originally built for German merchants and inaugurated in 1225. Around the year 1350 the church was enlarged and converted into a basilica. The two-storey magazine was also added then above the nave as a warehouse for merchants.
Following the Reformation, the church was transformed into a parish church for the town of Visby. All other churches were abandoned. Shortly after the Reformation, in 1572, Gotland was made into its own Diocese, and the church designated its cathedral.
There is not much left of the original interior. The font is made of local red marble in the 13th century. The pulpit was made in Lübeck in 1684. There are 400 graves under the church floor.