Røros
The mining town of Røros lies in Sør-Trøndelag county,160 km from Trondheim, 400 km from the capital of Oslo, and has a population of 3,500. No other town in Norway lies at such a high altitude and Røros owes its mountain situation 650 m above sea level to the hunt for metals. The town grew up around the copper mines and today is a living history of the mining community that dates from the middle of the 17th century.
Røros date its origin to 1646 when the first smelting hut at the Copper Works (1644-1977) was set up near the waterfall at the river Hitterelva that runs through the town. A cosmpolitan town developed around these huts, having two parellel streets (Kjerkgata and Bergmannsgata) and blocks of houses laparellel streets (Kjerkgata and Bergmannsgata) and blocks of houses laid according to the square-grid renaissance pattern favored by the "mining king" Christian 6. In its early days Røros was both a mining town, with the inhabitants working on the smelting as well as in the mines. Gradually the town became surrounded by the grazing houses created a unique townscape. Population increased rapidly: immigrants came not only from surrounding districts but from the Swedish border and Denmark, and mining experteese technicians came mostly from Germany. By the end of the 17th century Røros Copper Works with its some 2000 employees had become one of the most important industries in the Danish-Norwegian Kalmar Union.
