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I'm in the town of Röros right now
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You can see the characteristic Rue Ros church behind me there
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In Norwegian it's also Nicarious named Bergstaben, the mining town. And that's because there has been copper mining here all the
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way back since the mid-1600s. This is a very special place. All of the area is on the UNESCO
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World Heritage List and you can visit the mines of course. But you also have the Rueiros village
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which is just behind me here where you have a lot of wooden buildings stating back from the late
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1600s and onward. It's a place with a lot of charm. and a lot of character
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So come with me and we'll check it out. Being in the mining town of Ruros feels like a mining town of Ruros feels like a
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traveling back in time. With a large amount of old wooden houses and its well-preserved mining history
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there no wonder why Ruros was put on the UNESCO World Heritage List in 1980 Wherever you walk in the town you can see the R church an iconic landmark that can be seen from afar It was built in 1784 and paid for by the Rueiros copperworks
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With its 1600 seats, it's the fifth largest church in Norway. The melting hut or the smeltery was one
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one of the first buildings that were put up in Röros. This was where the copper was extracted from the ore
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It was placed next to the river so that they had running water to power the bellows that
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kept the fire going in the melting ovens. After extracting the copper from the ore, one was left with large amounts of rocks of iron
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These rocks were not usable for anything and was dumped just behind the smeltery and is still
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today in the same spot, forming large mounds just at the storestep of the town
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Later that day I drove to one of the mines just outside of town
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I'm up by a mine here now which is called the Olavskruva
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One of many mines in this area This one actually operated until as late as 1972 So I going to go inside and join a tour
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Röhros Copper Works was established in 64. And in 1646, the Danish Norwegian king, Christian IV, signed a letter of privilege
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giving the company rights to all minerals, forest and water resources, within a radius of 25 miles outside the center of the Röros town
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an area known as the circumference. Included in the privileges were also labor at a reasonable cost
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So people living inside the circumference were imposed to work in the mines
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However, as paid work was quite rare back then, it attracted people to come, live and work here
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Before going into the mine, there's a small museum, giving some background history
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A display on the wall shows a model of the layout of the mine
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and you can find some of the old tools that were used
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There's also a collection of different kinds of rocks that exist in the mountain
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To walk down into the mine is an exciting experience as we venture deeper and deeper into the mountain
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It's quite humid down here and not too cold though I'll say around 4 or 5 Celsius
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It was hard labor and long days for the men that worked here and of the 40 copper mines in the area
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a total of 100 tons of copper was produced from 1644 to 1977 And like many other mining areas in the world it was a vital industry for the area of Rheurals for several hundred years
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So we're 50 meters on the ground here now. And we're heading up again and it's been quite exciting
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to see how the mining. mining went on down here. So I just came back from a visit to Oloves Grueva
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Olovs mine and it was pretty fascinating. I remember when I was 13 I was down there as well
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And back then I was very fascinated by being in this dark
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small space, 150 feet on the ground. Still fascinates me, but also nice to hear
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to hear about the history and about the importance that the mining industry had for this part of
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Norway. So definitely I recommend a visit to the mines here in Röros
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After an enjoyable time in Röros, it was time to continue on with a road trip
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Next stop is the Dovre National Park, where I look for Moskaks, do a little mountain hike and
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experience some car problems. But, More about that in the next episode
