Surviving headframe above a historic iron-ore shaft in Mossgruveparken, Norberg, within a preserved medieval mining landscape.
Mossgruvans lave is a headframe structure in the Mossgruveparken area of Kärrgruvan, Norberg, standing above one of the iron-ore shafts in a field of water-filled open pits that preserves evidence of mining from the medieval period through to the early twentieth century. Mossgruvan and the surrounding workings are among the oldest mines in the Norberg district, with documentary evidence from at least 1440. Carl von Linné visited Mossgruvan on 13 January 1734 during his Bergslagsresa.
Iron-ore extraction in the area employed the ancient fire-setting technique (tillmakning) in its earlier phases, shifting to gunpowder, nitroglycerine, and dynamite in later centuries. The park and its surviving structures form part of the broader Kärrgruvans gruvmiljö heritage complex within Ekomuseum Bergslagen.
The Mossgruveparken occupies a low ridge in the Kärrgruvan area of northern Norberg, where a series of now water-filled open pits mark the line of medieval and post-medieval iron-ore workings. The mines in this immediate neighbourhood are documented from at least 1440 and the ore body was one of the richest in the Norberg district. The earliest extraction method was tillmakning — fire-setting — in which fires were lit against the rock face to heat and fracture it, allowing ore to be broken out with picks; the smooth upper walls of the open pits are evidence of this technique. From the early eighteenth century the use of gunpowder progressively replaced fire-setting, and later came nitroglycerine and dynamite, enabling deeper and more extensive working.
Carl von Linné recorded his visit to Mossgruvan on 13 January 1734 during his famous Bergslagsresa, providing one of the most vivid contemporary accounts of the mining practices and conditions of the period.
The open pits and shafts of the Mossgruveparken were kept free of water during active mining by an elaborate pump system. Power was transmitted from a waterwheel (Polhemshjulet, surviving several kilometres away at Norberg) via a stånggång rod system to the pumps in Risbergs konstschakt, which is 114 metres deep. This system is preserved and interpreted in the Norbergs gruvmuseum. Active mining in the area around Mossgruveparken continued until the early twentieth century.
Mossgruvans lave is the surviving headframe over one of the shafts in this area. The specific construction date of the present lave building as it survives is not precisely established in the consulted sources; a concrete headframe structure is visible in historical photographs of the Åsgruvan area of Mossgruveparken, consistent with early twentieth century construction. The precise shaft and construction date of the named lave require verification against primary building inventory records.
After closure the site was preserved as a heritage park: Mossgruveparken is a signposted walking route linking the water-filled open pits and surviving structures, and forms part of the Kärrgruvans gruvmiljö within Ekomuseum Bergslagen.