Roros
UNESCO World Heritage Site: Roros Mining Town And The Circumference (1980, Extended 2010) A Wooden Copper Mining Town Worked For Over 300 Years · Roros, Trondelag
Roros is a copper-mining town on a bare, high plateau near the Swedish border, and one of the best preserved wooden towns in Europe. Copper was mined here from 1644 until the mining company closed in 1977, and the town grew around the smelter: miners' and merchants' houses of dark timber, turf roofs, courtyards and narrow lanes, with huge grey heaps of slag left from centuries of smelting. It became a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1980, extended in 2010 to include the Circumference, the wide area of forest, farms and mines the company controlled. The main sights are the streets themselves, especially Bergmannsgata and Kjerkgata, the Smelthytta museum on the site of the old smelter, the big white Bergstadens Ziir church and the Olavsgruva mine outside town. Roros is also known for local food and its February winter market, Rorosmartnan. The honest caveats: it is one of Norway's coldest towns, with winter nights well below -30 C at times, it is small enough to see in a day, and on summer coach days and market week it is crowded.
Roros old town, from the church along Kjerkgata and Bergmannsgata to the smelter at the top of town, Roros, Trondelag, Norway
The old town is a living town, open all year, and its streets and slag heaps are free to walk at any hour. The Smelthytta museum is open daily in summer with long hours and on shorter hours in the rest of the year, sometimes with a closed day; Roros church opens to visitors mainly in summer, with guided tours, and otherwise for services - confirm. Olavsgruva mine is shown on guided tours at set times, more often in summer - book ahead. Arrive by train from Trondheim (roughly 2.5 hours) or from Hamar and Oslo (roughly 5 hours or more), by car, or by small plane from Oslo - confirm. Book hotels well ahead for Rorosmartnan in February and the Christmas market.