Skånska Gruvan (‘The Scanian Mine’) is one of the three surviving pavilions from the Stockholm Exhibition of 1897. The exhibition was visited by more than 1.5 million people and became Sweden's largest public event, comparable only to the Stockholm Olympics of 1912.
To become more visible during a large exhibition, several brick and sugar mills together with limestone, cement and coal companies from the Scania (Skåne) region in southern Sweden organised a common Scanian pavilion. The idea paid off and they attracted over 70,000 visitors. When the exhibition was over, Skånska Gruvan was donated to Skansen.
The building designed by the architect Gustaf Wickman has an unusual shape and hardly reminds of a mining complex. Its imaginative facade combines Renaissance features with elements of Spanish architecture and styles from industrialized North America.
The pavilion was severely damaged by fire in 1977, and rebuilt in 1999 to its approximate original appearance. It now houses a shop with building conservation material and the café Flickorna Helin & Voltaire.
