Mathildedal Ironworks Village near Teijo National Park
When you visit Natura Viva’s Teijo Nature Centre, it’s well worth stopping by Mathildedal too. In Mathildedal you’ll find cafés, restaurants, and cultural sights.
Teijo National Park is an especially interesting destination because you can combine a nature outing with a village visit—enjoy a meal in a restaurant, taste local brewery products, browse small shops for handmade goods, and take in culturally and historically significant sights along the way.
Teijo’s three lively ironworks villages—Kirjakkala, Teijo and Mathildedal—are located by the sea on the west side of the national park. The closest one to Natura Viva’s Teijo Nature Centre is Mathildedal, situated between Lake Matildanjärvi and Teijonselkä, about two kilometres from the nature centre.
For a meal, café stop or local shops in Mathildedal
Mathildedal is small but lively. There are 130 year-round residents, and many run the village’s numerous businesses: restaurants, a café, a brewery, a bakery, and many craft shops. In summer, the population grows as seasonal residents arrive.
The village’s restaurants and cafés offer local specialities, products from the village’s own brewery, and sometimes live music. From the bakery you can buy baked goods, and the café serves coffee roasted on-site. Theatre and concerts are also available.
Mathildedal Ironworks Village also has several craft workshops and small shops—on your visit, you might stop by, for example, an antique shop or a yarn spinning mill.
Accommodation options range from bed & breakfast stays to cottages and hotels. Natura Viva’s Matildan kämpät Vaappu and Lippa—two six-person rental cabins—are within walking distance from Mathildedal village on the shore of Lake Matildanjärvi.
A historic ironworks setting in Mathildedal
Mathildedal’s history reaches back to the late 1600s, when Lorentz Creutz began building a hamari (a water-powered mechanical hammer) along the Hummeldal stream in 1688. With this hammer, iron ore collected from the area was forged into ingots.
Mathildedal’s ironworks grew to its height in the 1800s after rich ore veins were found in the area. In 1852, mining councillor Viktor Bremer—who also owned the Teijo ironworks north of Mathildedal—built a steelworks at the mouth of the Hummeldal river, a so-called puddling plant. By the end of the 1800s, Mathildedal produced tools, machines and engines.
Steel puddling ended in the early 1900s, and after that Mathildedal has had, among other things, shipyard industry and car assembly plants. Industrial activity ended in the 1970s.
From the early 2000s onwards, Mathildedal has been restored and revitalised, and today small businesses have taken over the old ironworks and factory buildings.