Strömfors Ironworks Museum

The Stromfors ironworks at Ruotsinpyhtaa near the south coast of Finland was founded in the late 1690s, at first producing bar iron from Swedish pig iron. Subsequently a blast furnace was built. The principal surviving building is a red brick water-powered forge of 1871 in which charcoal was used in a finery process until 1950. The forge has been conserved as a museum since 1960, together with a water-powered sawmill of 1887. The church of the ironworking community was built in the early 1770s, and on the banks of the river are many workers’ houses, the oldest of them dating from the 18th century.