FROM IRON FOUNDRY TO CULTURAL CENTRE

A. Blom & Søns Maskinfabrik closed in the autumn of 1977, one of the largest workplaces in Skanderborg for the previous 100 years. However, thanks to local cooperation and a visionary town council, a unique cultural centre has since been established on the large industrial site right in the heart of the town.

After only three years all the buildings, apart from one, had been demolished, and it was the start of a beautiful park beside the lake, Skanderborg Storesø. The single remaining building, the former wood-working factory, was renovated and in 1982 became a municipal library. In 1997, work was started on the building of a cultural centre on the spot where Blom’s old iron foundry had once been.

A place of work for almost 100 years
A. Blom, who was an engine builder, acquired the property with an adjoining two acres of land in 1882 and the following year established a modern iron foundry beside the lake.

In the following years there were a number of extensions and the farm machinery produced by the factory became known throughout the country for its outstanding quality. In its heyday in the 1920s, the workforce at the factory was more than 200 strong.

However, with the depression of the 1930s the factory experienced hard times, and in 1937 the firm was forced to become a limited liability company. The situation was not helped by the location of the factory right near the town centre which, with the high street on one side and the lake on the other, became increasingly restrictive for the extensions that became necessary given the requirements at that time for large-scale operations. The owners of the company therefore decided, in 1977, to sell the plot to the municipality, thereby bringing 95 years of active economic activity to an end.

Park and cultural centre
For the citizens of Skanderborg it was the start of the realisation of a long-held dream of having better access from the town centre to the beautiful lake, Storesø, and by buying almost ten small and large neighbouring plots to the south, the municipality was able at the beginning of the 1980s to plan a large park for the town, one with several hundred metres of shoreline and with docking facilities for the tourist vessel Dagmar.

However, throughout the 1990s there were repeated calls for a cultural centre, which resulted in the town council opening the coffers and allocating sufficient funds to the project.

So, in the autumn of 1998, an impressive cultural centre, and a park that had been transformed beyond recognition, stood ready for use.

Blom’s iron foundry has become a centre for culture and collaboration with meeting and exhibition rooms, a music and theatre hall with seating for 700 people, a cinema with 150 seats and a bright and spacious foyer with a new entrance to the library on one side and on the other Gamle Bloms café from which there are spectacular views over the lake.

The market town of Skanderborg can really take pride in this new attraction.