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Accor­ding to histo­ri­cal sour­ces, Cister­ci­an monks came to Lugnåsberget in 1147. They taught the local popu­la­tion how to quar­ry mill­sto­nes from the mountain, and which tools were needed.

At first, the mill­sto­nes were quar­ri­ed in open pit mines, and the wor­kers had the quar­ry­ing as an extra income. It was not until the 19th cen­tu­ry that mines were dug into the mountain side and the pruduc­tion beca­me indust­ri­a­li­zed. The demand for mill­sto­nes had incre­a­sed due to popu­la­tion growth, and many miners were now ful­ly employed in the mines.

The mill­sto­nes were sold all over Swe­den, and some sto­nes even made it all the way to North Afri­ca and Tur­key, pro­bably as bal­last. At most, around 100 men worked in the quar­ri­es and mines. Add coach­men, blacksmit­hs, clog­ma­kers, women and child­ren, and you get a work­for­ce of around 600 people.

Some­ti­me between 1915 and 1925, all mill­sto­ne making ope­ra­tions cea­sed at Lugnåsberget. The rea­son was new mate­ri­als and new mil­ling tech­ni­ques, which made the natu­ral mill­sto­nes obsolete.

Today, the­re are remains of around 50–55 mines and 600 quar­ri­es, all around the mountain. The mill­sto­ne quar­ry in Min­nes­fjäl­let is the only quar­ry of its type in Euro­pe that is open to the pub­lic, and it was given Swe­dish geo­lo­gi­cal heri­tage sta­tus in 2012.

Hit­ta Hit

The limesto­ne quar­ry at Lug­nås is loca­ted in the natu­re reser­ve Lug­nås kvarnstens­gru­vor.