Every design for Falun

Few places have coloured Sweden as literally as Falun. Out of the Falu copper mine came not only the ore that once carried the country's economy, but also the by-product that became our best-loved red paint – the one glowing on cottages from coast to coast. In 2001 the town, the mine and the mining district were inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage list.

The Faluån divides the town in two. South-west of the water lies the so-called grim side with Stora Stöten and the mining museum, while the handsome old villas gathered on the lovely side, where the roasting smoke never reached. At Dalarnas Museum and the Ernst Rolf house, history and cultural life meet.

From here come the falukorv sausage and Falu red paint too – two things few people think of as being from Falun, but which are. On the map you follow the river's bend between the two sides, exactly as the people of Falun always have.