Fagersta airspace surveillance tower ( sv, Fagersta luftbevakningstorn) is an

airspace Airspace is the portion of the atmosphere controlled by a country above its territory, including its territorial waters or, more generally, any specific three-dimensional portion of the atmosphere. It is not the same as aerospace, which is the ...

surveillance tower in

Fagersta Fagersta is a locality and the seat of Fagersta Municipality in Västmanland County, Sweden, with 11,130 inhabitants in 2010. Geography The city is located at the junction of two railways between Ludvika-Västerås and Avesta (Krylbo)-Örebro, ...

Västmanland County Västmanland County ( sv, Västmanlands län) is a county or '' län'' in central Sweden. It borders the counties of Södermanland, Örebro, Gävleborg, Dalarna and Uppsala. The county also has a stretch of shoreline towards Mälaren (Sweden's ...

, Sweden. Designed by

Cyrillus Johansson Cyrillus Johansson (9 July 1884, in Gävle – 20 May 1959, in Lidingö) was a Swedish architect. Life and work Laurentius Cyrillus Johansson was born in Gävle, Sweden. He was the son of Magnus Johansson and Johanna Charlotta Bohlin His f ...

, it is the only tower in Sweden dating from

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

and built for airspace surveillance that was designed by an architect, and one of only a few such towers to remain intact. Since 2013, it is a

listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...

History

During

, the

steel mill A steel mill or steelworks is an industrial plant for the manufacture of steel. It may be an integrated steel works carrying out all steps of steelmaking from smelting iron ore to rolled product, but may also be a plant where steel semi-finish ...

company Fagersta Bruk AB (no longer in existence) was an important supplier of

munition Ammunition (informally ammo) is the material fired, scattered, dropped, or detonated from any weapon or weapon system. Ammunition is both expendable weapons (e.g., bombs, missiles, grenades, land mines) and the component parts of other weapo ...

s and weapons for the

Swedish Armed Forces The Swedish Armed Forces ( sv, Försvarsmakten, "the Defense Force") is the government agency that forms the armed forces of Sweden, tasked with the defense of the country as well as with promoting Sweden's wider interests, supporting internati ...

. Among other things, the steel mill provided the military with shells for grenades and barrels for rifles. While Sweden remained directly unaffected by the war, the country maintained a high degree of military readiness. In order to be able to defend the steel mill in the event of an attack on Sweden,

anti-aircraft guns Anti-aircraft warfare, counter-air or air defence forces is the battlespace response to aerial warfare, defined by NATO as "all measures designed to nullify or reduce the effectiveness of hostile air action".AAP-6 It includes surface based, ...

were placed by the military around strategic industrial sites. The company owning the steel mill in 1943 took the initiative to build the tower, from which the fire of the anti-aircraft guns could be directed. The tower was finished in 1944, but saw no use in its intended capacity, since the war ended within a year of its construction, and the neutrality of Sweden was not violated during that time.

Fagersta Municipality Fagersta Municipality (''Fagersta kommun'') is a municipality in Västmanland County in central Sweden. Its seat is located in the city of Fagersta. The ''City of Fagersta'' (instituted in 1944) was in 1967 merged with Västervåla parish (which ...

considered tearing the tower down at one point, but after funding had been secured for its restoration (funding provided to a large part by the

County administrative board A county administrative board ( sv, länsstyrelse) is a Swedish Government Agency in each of the counties of Sweden, led by a vice-regal governor ( sv, landshövding) appointed by the government for a term of six years. The lists of gubernatorial o ...

) the building was restored. Since 2013, it is a listed building, meaning it is protected by law against destruction or alteration. During World War II, approximately 1,200 airspace surveillance towers were built in Sweden, most of them wooden. Only a few remain preserved, and the tower in Fagersta is unique in that it was designed by an architect. The use of expensive building materials is also unusual. It is also the only such tower that Cyrillus Johansson designed.

Design

Fagersta Bruk AB contracted architect Cyrillus Johansson to design the tower. He had previously designed other buildings for the company, as well as other buildings in Fagersta. The tower is constructed out of yellow

brick A brick is a type of block used to build walls, pavements and other elements in masonry construction. Properly, the term ''brick'' denotes a block composed of dried clay, but is now also used informally to denote other chemically cured cons ...

, and a spiral stair runs inside the tower. Small windows give daylight to the stairwell. The tower ends in a platform surmounted by an octagonal pavilion with a small

spire A spire is a tall, slender, pointed structure on top of a roof of a building or tower, especially at the summit of church steeples. A spire may have a square, circular, or polygonal plan, with a roughly conical or pyramidal shape. Spires are ...

and a

weather vane A wind vane, weather vane, or weathercock is an instrument used for showing the direction of the wind. It is typically used as an architectural ornament to the highest point of a building. The word ''vane'' comes from the Old English word , m ...

. A small adjacent building was designed to function as a small office and

bomb shelter A bomb shelter is a structure designed to provide protection against the effects of a bomb. Types of shelter Different kinds of bomb shelters are configured to protect against different kinds of attack and strengths of hostile explosives. Air ...

. It has been noted that the design displays influences from oriental architecture, and it has been compared to both a

minaret A minaret (; ar, منارة, translit=manāra, or ar, مِئْذَنة, translit=miʾḏana, links=no; tr, minare; fa, گل‌دسته, translit=goldaste) is a type of tower typically built into or adjacent to mosques. Minarets are generall ...

and the tower of a medieval or fairy tale

castle A castle is a type of fortified structure built during the Middle Ages predominantly by the nobility or royalty and by military orders. Scholars debate the scope of the word ''castle'', but usually consider it to be the private fortified r ...

. The tower is tall.

References

{{reflist Sweden in World War II Military installations of Sweden Anti-aircraft warfare Listed buildings in Sweden Buildings and structures in Västmanland County Towers completed in 1944