Frederiksværk is a town in North Zealand with 12,694 inhabitants (2020), located between Arresø and Roskilde Fjord. The city is located in Halsnæs Municipality in the northwestern part of the Capital Region.
The history of the city
When the flying sand had blocked both
Arresø's old connection with the Kattegat to the north and later its
connection with the Isefjord, Frederik IV had a canal 1717-19 dug by
Danish soldiers under the command of Major Eberlin v. Feriden. After
an old tradition, however, it was Swedish prisoners who carried out
the work, and this may also be true, as Swedish prisoners often went
into Danish service or were put to work and even rented out to
landowners. The canal was the precondition for the construction of
large factory facilities that utilized hydropower. At the same time,
the town of Frederiksværk emerged.
Early factory trials
In
1728, Frederik IV entrusted overland builder Johan Kornelius Krieger
to build an agate grinder by the canal. The mill was taken into use
in 1729, but it was already closed down immediately after the death
of Christian VI in 1746. In the following years, there were plans to
transform the mill into a leather factory, which, however, did not
materialize. On the other hand, in 1751 the king took over a larger
stretch by the river and left it to the Frenchman Etienne Jandin de
Peyrembert to build a cannon plant here. Although the king fired
significant sums into the project, the work of producing usable
cannons failed. In 1756, Frederik V donated the agate mill to State
Councilor Just Fabritius and Chancellor, later Major General, Johan
Frederik Classen with associated more than 90 acres of land. Area
was later expanded on the condition that the two contractors would
build a gunpowder plant. In 1758, the first powder was produced at
the plant, which was named Frederiksværk. To provide hydropower for
this industry, the canal that bends north from the river that
carries the water from Arresø to Roskilde Fjord was excavated. At
the entrance to the gunpowder plant, the canal was bent to the west
and continued until it emptied into the fjord; at the bend, a
bulwark with a lock was built, so that the water could be led, and
stamp and core mills built on the site. In addition, the two
companions set up a cannon foundry and were thus able to supply both
gunpowder and cannons to the army during the current and dangerous
Prussian Seven Years' War, which is why they were strongly favored
by the state.
Johan Frederik Classen
Fabricius resigned
from the company in 1760, after which the work passed into actual
state property with the king's purchase of Frederiksværk for 130,000
rigsdaler. But the autocratic majesty let Classen continue to
control it by both retaining the inspection and, as it was called,
"that he may thus, at his own pleasure, bark and roll as he
pleases." Finally, after a futile attempt to get Frederiksværk
(together with Kronborg Geværfabrik) subsidized for free, Classen
became the sole owner of the plant for a purchase price of 100,000
rigsdaler. Favorable trade conditions, especially during the North
American War of Independence, and great hospitality on the part of
the king, enabled Classen to accomplish much, so that not only his
factories flourished, but the whole place and region prospered; he
successfully had the whole sandy terrain planted, which not only
provided enough wood for the gunpowder mills, but also provided
shelter for the city. He also worked as an avid farmer: he owned
large tracts of land around the town. The peasant estate, which he
acquired in 1768, amounted to 798 acres of hard grain land. Here he
received permission to establish the main farms Arresødal and
Grønnessegård.
A central part of the cannon work was
Gjethuset. This foundry was built in two stages. The north wing was
completed in 1764, while the three-wing industrial building was
completed in 1769. The foundry still exists; after a period of
severe decay in the latter half of the 20th century, the Gjethuset
and the area around it were restored in a large-scale construction
project in the early 1990s and today serves as a culture house.
After Classen's death at Arresødal on 24 March 1792, according
to a provision in his will, Frederiksværk's establishment with
buildings and machinery as well as the two estates Arresødal and
Grønnessegård were transferred to Count Carl of Hessen, in exchange
for him paying 7,000 rigsdaler annually to Classen by the will.
created fideicommiss. In the year 1804, the county count transferred
Frederiksværk, whose debt had grown, so that it exceeded the value
of the property, and the estates to his son-in-law, Crown Prince
Frederik (later Frederik VI). The Crown Prince set up his own
administration until the properties could become state property
after the co-heirs were released. These negotiations lasted
throughout the reign of Frederik VI and were not completed until the
beginning of Christian VIII (1840).
In 1833, cannon
production stopped. It is estimated that a total of between 2,500
and 2,600 cannons have been produced in Frederiksværk.
Trading space
In the middle of the 19th century, Frederiksværk is described as
a factory town with an iron foundry (90 workers), a machine factory
(60 workers), a knife factory with a grinding mill (57 workers), a
powder factory (27 workers) and a copper rolling mill (24 workers)
and several smaller private companies from breweries to a "forging
workshop for agricultural implements" as well as a few privileged
trading companies.
In 1850, Frederiksværk was granted the
status of a trading post. Despite this, the contemporary J.P. Trap
skeptical about the place's trading opportunities. In the first
edition of his statistical-topographical description of Denmark, he
wrote: "About Frederiksværk, when the two aforementioned grocery
entitlements had to be raised by the death of the owners or by
replacement, could rise as a trading place in freer competition, is
considered doubtful".
The fixtures are sold for private use
According to the law of 8 April 1851, the attachments were sold to
private property 1854-55, Arresødal was sold in 1855, Grønnessegård
in 1859.
Heegaard and the Land Military Service
According
to the law of 4 May 1856 in 1857, the factories were sold to factory
owner Anker Heegaard, who joined them on 1 January 1858 and ran them
as a machine factory, iron foundry and enamel workshop, while the
gunpowder factory was preserved as state property and transferred to
the land military service.
The gunpowder plant was later
subordinated to the director of the artillery's technical service
and has been the army's main supplier since its construction. From
1884 it also supplied gunpowder to the navy. The oldest gunpowder
manufactured was stamped powder gunpowder. In 1862, the old stamp
mills were closed down, and the production of roller press powder
(laminoir powder) was switched on. Later, gunpowder was produced by
hydraulic pressing, then prismatic gunpowder, first black and later
brown. The plant had supplied almost all of the brown gunpowder used
to charge even the kingdom's heaviest coastal cannons. Finally, in
1891, the manufacture of smokeless gunpowder was introduced. A
remote section was then built in Arresødal Skov by the lake, Sørups
Vang, where a few operations at the non-smoking gunpowder
manufacture took place. While the actual fabrication took place at
the old gunpowder plant, where several new buildings were therefore
erected.
The gunpowder mills were initially powered solely by
hydropower. There were still around 1900 three water wheels, one of
which was a turbine. However, as the number of turbines was
significantly increased, and when hydropower did not strike, steam
power was also introduced.
Frederiksværk's population
increased at the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the
20th century. There lived 739 people in the city in 1850, 708 in
1855, 764 in 1860, 915 in 1870, 839 in 1880, 1,098 in 1890, 1,431 in
1901, 1,664 in 1906 and 1,672 in 1911.
Of the 1,664
inhabitants of Frederiksværk in 1906, 129 subsisted on intangible
activities, 44 on agriculture, forestry and dairy farming, 42 on
fishing, 945 on crafts and industry, 269 on trade and more, 109 on
transport, 82 were retired people, 17 lived off public support and
27 by other or unspecified company.