Highlights

History

Dalsbruk (also known as Taalintehdas) was originally established in 1686 and is one of Finland’s oldest ironworks. The ironworks was founded by Daniel Faxell, later ennobled as Cronmarck. The reason for building the ironworks was its location near a good deep harbor, as well as the availability of sufficient forests and adequate water power.

The name Dalsbruk (or Taalintehdas) first appeared in written records in 1704. In 1724, merchant Mikael Hising purchased the Dalsbruk ironworks and had the decaying blast furnace repaired. The water power at Dalsbruk was weak, so he built a refining plant, a hammer forge, on Lake Björkboda. There, the pig iron from Dalsbruk was refined into wrought iron. After Hising’s death, the factory was inherited by the Petersen family, who owned it for three generations, the last of whom was Wolter af Petersén. His wife, Charlotte (née Hästesko), is said to haunt the area as the Svarta Damen (Black Lady).

Carl August Ramsay, who was married to Wolter’s daughter, took control of Dalsbruk in 1834. Carl August was a reformer, and during his time, the first coke ovens were built at Dalsbruk in 1836. After his death, the ironworks was divided, with Wolter Ramsay inheriting Dalsbruk and his brother inheriting Björkboda.

Wolter Ramsay was to build his own refining plants, and he established a rolling mill on Skeppsholmen Island in front of Dalsbruk. The island later became Valsverksholmen, the industrial center of the village. The rolling mill began operations in 1860, marking the transition from artisanal to industrial production. This shift increased the demand for labor, leading to a migration of workers to Dalsbruk that continued well into the 1880s.

Technological progress continued steadily. Finland’s first Siemens-Martin furnace was built at Dalsbruk in 1879. When the furnace ceased operation in 1978, it was the last of its kind in Finland.

In the 1870s and 1880s, a local railway was built to connect the ironworks plants and loading areas. A chemical laboratory and the factory, along with the surrounding community, were also equipped with electric lighting.

The factory was purchased by Oy Wärtsilä Ab in 1937–1938, and the post-war period saw unprecedented growth. The factory’s production was primarily directed to the Soviet Union as war reparations.

In the mid-1970s, Dalsbruk’s steelworks employed nearly 1,200 people, but the steel crisis hit in the early 1980s, leading to the closure of both the steel plant and the steel foundry. Although the economic conditions fluctuated, operations continued with a diminishing workforce. In 2012, the rolling mill operating under the name FN-Steel went bankrupt, marking the end of industrial activity at Dalsbruk.