Was on a small trip to Røros in southeastern Trøndelag yesterday. The town of Røros is one of the oldest towns in Europe with streets from the 17th century, and wooden buildings, and also one of the few mining towns in the world that has been found worthy of a place on UNESCO’s World Heritage List. The town centre boasts a rare collection of large and well-preserved wooden buildings, made all the more real and authentic by the fact that the people of today live and work in them.
As i travelled from famous Leksvik and south down Gauldalen i passed by waterfalls as Eidet Foss and some nice mountains. I also took a trip to the worlds northernmost desert just outside Røros. The desert is about 3km long, and 1km wide. Not the biggest desert, but worth walking on when you rarely find deserts in Norway!
>> Røros
Røros has a population on 5 639 (1.1.2005) and is situated in the southeastern corner of Sør Trøndelag county bordering Sweden. The current city was built in the years after 1679, when a Swedish army destroyed and burned down the town. The mining industry started in 1644 with Olavsgruva which can also be visited and explored by tourists today. Few years later they opened another mine and Røros grew from a couple of houses to a small town. The last mine closed down in 1977, after 333 years in service, and Røros is now mainly a tourist city with over 1 million tourists yearly.
>> Røros church
Røros church, or “Bergstadens Ziir”, was built in the heyday of the Copperworks “to the glory of God and to adorn the town”. It deserves its name, and towers majestically over the wooden houses at the top of the town. Completed in 1784, the Directorate of Cultural Heritage considers it to be amongst the ten most important churches in Norway. It is the fourth largest in the country, with 1,600 seats. Falkberget baptised the baroque church “the mountain cathedral”.
>> Slegghaugene
Hills of melted stone from the mines outside Røros. Some of the hills is up to 40m tall, and is quite a sight.
