The Old Town

Røros has been recognized by the United Nations as a World Heritage site. The old part of the town consists of two main streets running up a hill and a small network of side streets, all lined with wooden buildings built wall-to-wall, many of them hundreds of years old. These log houses were once the homes of mine workers. In places the walls are have sagged and bowed so that the old logs form subtle curves, yet they are still so tight it would be hard to put a knife blade between them.

The broad main street is lined with relatively upscale shops, faced with vertical siding like the buildings in Trondheim

.

Sleggsveien, located right by the enormous slag heaps from the smelter, was the poor part of town, but now the poorest shacks at the end of the street are being restored, at great expanse, by the town museum.

The crossed hammers over the door remind of what was, until quite recently, the town's raison d'etre...

Back - Home - Next