Råbäcks Mechanical Stonemasonry

Limestone has been quarried and processed as a building material on the Kinnekulle mountain near Lake Vänern since the 11th century. With industrialisation from the middle of the 19th century, mechanisation entered the stonemasonry trade. In 1888 Carl Klingspor founded the company 'Råbäcks Mekaniska Stenhuggeri', which produced stairs, floors, window sills, friezes and portals, but also gravestones, feeding troughs, garden stones and much more from the red and grey limestone. When demand declined, the business was closed in 1970.

In 1983 the surviving stonemasonry workshop was converted into a museum, which was awarded Working Life Museum of the Year in 2018. The workshop buildings still contain several stone-working machines, such as a gang saw, stone-planers, lathes and grinders, as well as cranes. Almost all of the machines are in working order and are operated regularly by volunteers. Together with the smithy, three workers' dwellings with outbuildings, some stockpiles and the harbour of Råbäck, they keep the memory of the old stonemasonry alive.