Staberg-Mine-owner

Gamla Staberg, a flourishing mine-owner’s estate

The main building is the centre of the symmetrically ordered site that, in keeping with the baroque ideal, conquers the surrounding landscape by mean of straight lines and axes. Gamla Staberg has therefore, with some justifications, been called “Dalarnas Vesailles" in Falun Red, adapted to harsh climate and stony landscape. Utility is united with pleasure, but with a clear aspiration for neatness and a desire to assert power and importance of the owner.

The history of Gamla Staberg begins in the late Middle ages. The first known occupant was Hans Marqvardsson, who owned the farm in 1539. He was also part owner of the Falun mine. Men with interests in copper production at the mine built their estates in the countryside all around Falun – the distinctive landscape known as Kopparbergsslagen (The Copper Mining District)

Aerial view of Staberg
Photo: Patrik and Fredrik Örtendahl

Many estates were established close watercourses that could power the numerous smelting houses
where the copper ore from Falun was turned into crude copper. The huge heaps of copper slag to the
west and south of the estate still reminds us of the extensive smelting operations that were carried on
at Gamla Staberg for a long time. The possibilities of smelting beside the nearby River Knivaån and the
good transport routes over Lake Runn explain why the farm was located here.

Land-survey map of Gamla Staberg from 1753-54. The dwelling house with its wings is the centre of
the estate. Pink sight lines radiate axially from the centre. The Garden is visible as six green squares
surrounded by yellow sand paths and walls. At the bottom is the smelting house beside the River
Knvivaån.

The Nauclér family took over Staberg in 1671 and owned it until 1820. It was under this successful family of mine-owner that the estate took on the form it has today.

A distinguished estate in austere Caroline baroque style was gradually built up. We get a good idea of
this estate from a land survey map from 1753-54. The owner’s residence is the core of the estate. From
here the lines of sight radiate over the surrounding landscape. The buildings are symmetrically
ordered in three enclosed courts: the main court with the dwelling house and its wings, then the
middle court to which the drive leads, and to the far north the animal yard with stables and byres.
South of the main court is the garden, divided into six squares separated by sand paths and
surrounded by a stonewall. Three hop-gardens are also laid out east of the estate.