Falun Mine

Falun Mine operated for a millennium, from the tenth century until 1992. At its height it produced as much as two-thirds of Europe’s copper and helped fund Sweden’s seventeenth-century wars, and the technical developments made here influenced mining worldwide for two centuries. It is now a museum and was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2001. The red pigment that paints wooden houses across the whole country is a by-product of this one hole in the ground.