One of the richest iron ore deposits at Norberg is Mossgruvan, where the mining museum is situated today. The visitor is given an idea of how it was to work and live by a mine more than a hundred years ago. The correct name is Risbergs konstschakt and the building was raised in 1876 over a 114 metre deep mine shaft. The shaft was originally sunk in the18th century.
A very important function of the shaft was to drain the mine. From the shaft it was possible to keep several adjoining pits free from water. The pump equipment was operated using power transmitted from a water wheel by means of a ”stånggång”, a long wooden construction.
The old pumping station has been restored. Visitors are today shown how water is pumped up from the mine. They can also look down the mine shaft.
Apart from the pumping station, a cable operated lift car to carry the miners as well as a canteen, a small foreman’s office and a forge are shown in the pit head building. Visitors can see the tools used by the smith and the old machine used to plane wood, still in working order. A visit to the mining museum may be combined with a tour of Mossgruveparken, a museum park with a signposted walk leading between the old water filled mine holes.
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Built around AD 90 to entertain the legionaries stationed at the fort of Caerleon (Isca), the impressive amphitheatre was the Roman equivalent of today’s multiplex cinema. Wooden benches provided seating for up to 6,000 spectators, who would gather to watch bloodthirsty displays featuring gladiatorial combat and exotic wild animals.
Long after the Romans left, the amphitheatre took on a new life in Arthurian legend. Geoffrey of Monmouth, the somewhat imaginative 12th-century scholar, wrote in his History of the Kings of Britain that Arthur was crowned in Caerleon and that the ruined amphitheatre was actually the remains of King Arthur’s Round Table.
Today it is the most complete Roman amphitheatre in Britain.