![]() The museum-located on ground level-is a smart and chronologically ordered timeline of the mine’s history. The paint making operation is found fenced off to the side of the mine, and the bulk of the mine has been converted into a tourist attraction and museum that gets over 100,000 visitors per year. The pigment is then mixed with water, flour and linseed oil to produce the paint. ![]() The hotter the temperature, the darker the paint gets. But today, thanks to precise temperature controls, multiple shades of Falu red exist, including a dark red and a black. “For the first 200 years, it was a bright color because ovens weren’t that hot,” says Jansson. The dry pigment is then ground, and mixed with water, flour and linseed oil to produce the paint. “In the drying oven, all the water disappears from the sludge and it changes color and begins to draw from yellow to red,” explains Martin Jansson, the CEO of Falu Rödfärg, the official Falu red paint company affiliated with the mine. The heat transforms it from an earthy yellow to a brilliant red color. Over time, the iron weathers to form iron oxide, which is the base for the unique pigment. Falu red is a waste byproduct, made from leftover rocks and ores containing iron. Without any precious metals left, making red paint was a clever way to continue monetizing the mine. The idea is that it’s something to do when there’s nothing going on.” That’s when they really started turning up the production of the red paint. “From the 18th century, they started thinking about what they could do if there wasn’t that much copper. “That was the end of the heyday,” says Nybelius. “At this time, Sweden was one of the great powers of Europe and everything was paid for with copper from Falun.” Of course, every mine has an expiration date and sure enough, copper resources started dwindling at the end of the 17th century in 1687, the mine collapsed. “In the 17th century, two-thirds of the Western world’s copper production came from Falun,” says Johanna Nybelius, an archeologist and museum educator at the mine. Today the mine is a museum and UNESCO World Heritage site, but at one point in history, it was the largest copper mine in Europe and the economic anchor of the Swedish kingdom. Falu red comes from the Falun copper mine in central Sweden, which dates back to the 9th century. “The right color is always bright red,” he insists.įor five decades, Anderberg’s country cottage property has been his pride and joy. While there were a lot of decisions to make in the last 50 years, the color of the house was never up for debate. He bought it when he was in his 20s-a dilapidated centuries old property with a rotting foundation, and rebuilt it from the ground up. ![]() While his primary residence is two hours south in the city of Malmö, the country cottage is a vacation home that he commutes to for holidays, weekends, and now whenever he wants because he’s retired. “They mixed it and boiled it,” he says.įor five decades, Anderberg’s country cottage property has been his pride and joy. Today, the red paint can be bought in hardware stores across Sweden, though Anderberg (who is my father-in-law) recalls that when he was a kid, he saw people putting red pigment in buckets with water and flour to make the paint themselves. The color, known specifically as Falu red, has been a consistent symbol of pastoral life in Sweden for the last century, an influence that thanks to the Swedish diaspora has seeped into bordering countries, like Norway and Finland, and even America, in the form of the big red barn. Nearly all countryside houses and barns in Sweden are voluntarily red, albeit in different shades. Down the street, the neighbors’ homes are the same color scheme, and up and along the Swedish countryside, the red continues, as if it were mandated. For the last 53 years, Christer Anderberg has been happily painting his country cottage and the adjacent barns the same exact color-a bright crimson red with white trimmings on the windows. ![]()
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