Falun

Copper made Falun. Mining at the Great Copper Mountain, Stora Kopparberget, was a local business by the mid-13th century and possibly as early as the year 1000, and the company that ran it holds a share document dated 1288 and a charter of 1347; it is often called the oldest existing enterprise in the world. A local legend says the copper was found when a goat named Kåre came home with red earth on his horns.

The 17th century was the golden age. The mine produced as much as two-thirds of Europe's copper, Sweden held a near monopoly, and the profits helped to fund the country's wars. Falun received its town privileges in 1641, Kristine Church was built to meet the conditions, and by the middle of the century it was the second-largest town in Sweden, within today's borders, after Stockholm. In 1687, at Midsummer when the miners were off work, the riddled rock collapsed into the Great Pit; nobody was killed. In 1719 miners found the body of Fet-Mats, lost in a cave-in in 1677 and found intact in a water-filled shaft.

Production declined slowly over the following three centuries until the mine closed in 1992. During the Second World War, British and American airmen who landed in Sweden were interned around Falun, staying in hotels and guesthouses with relative freedom. In the 1960s and 1970s the town was modernised and many older buildings were demolished. In 2001 the mine, the town and the mining landscape became a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and the mining company, Stora Kopparberg, is now part of the forest-industry group Stora Enso.

The mine's by-products coloured Sweden. Iron and copper residues are still used to make Falu red, the paint used on wooden houses in Sweden, Finland and Norway. Falun also lent its name to falukorv, Falu rågrut crispbread and Falu ättika vinegar.

Dalarna is seen by many Swedes as the essence of the country, and Falun shares in its folk culture: Dala horses, kurbits painting, handicraft shops on Stora torget and Midsummer celebrations. The writer Selma Lagerlöf lived in the Centralpalatset on the main square and wrote The Wonderful Adventures of Nils there; her library and study are reconstructed in Dalarnas Museum. The painter Carl Larsson and the textile artist Karin Larsson made their home at Sundborn nearby.

Winter sport is central to local identity. The ski jumps at Lugnet stand over the town, the stadium has hosted the Nordic World Ski Championships in 1954, 1974, 1993 and 2015, and Falun twice bid unsuccessfully for the Winter Olympics in the 1980s. The bandy club Falu BS has long played in the top division, IBF Falun has had great success in floorball, and the town also hosts a snowboard competition, The Battle.

About 40,000 people lived in the urban area in 2023, out of about 60,000 in the municipality; with Borlänge, its friendly rival, Falun forms a metropolitan area of just over 100,000. It is the county seat of Dalarna and an important service and industrial town, despite the closure of the mine.

Dalarna University, founded in 1977, has a campus in Falun beside the national ski stadium. Stora Enso, the descendant of the old mining company, is still active in the forest industry. Unlike Borlänge, Falun has no dominant out-of-town shopping mall, so the best shopping is in the pedestrian centre; it was named Sweden's city centre of the year in 1998.

The Faluån river divides the town, and the old names for its two halves, the mining side and the delightful side, are still remembered. Daily life follows the seasons: boating on Lake Runn in summer, skating on its ice and skiing at Lugnet in winter, and town festivals from the June market to the autumn fair.

Falun's best-known food is falukorv, the Falu sausage. Its history goes back to the 16th and 17th centuries, when ox hides were used to make ropes for the copper mine and some of the leftover meat was salted and smoked for sausages; a local butcher revived the tradition in the late 19th century. Modern falukorv mixes pork with beef or veal, is pre-cooked so it can be eaten cold, uses only potato flour as a binder, and has EU Traditional Speciality Guaranteed status. It is curved, the result of natural casings.

The town also gave its name to Falu rågrut, a rye crispbread. Everyday eating is Swedish husmanskost, traditional home cooking based on pork, fish, potatoes, root vegetables, cabbage and berries, with pea soup, herring and meatballs with brown cream sauce and lingonberry jam among the classics.

Eating out centres on lunch. Most restaurants serve a dagens rätt, a dish of the day, on weekdays, including one in the town hall cellars that moves outdoors in summer, and there is a restaurant inside Dalarnas Museum. Fika, the coffee break with a pastry, is part of every day, and the café at the ski jumps adds a view over the town.