Please write a recommendation!
At Bergdala museum of glass technology we show unique machines for glass-making,
and examples of glasses made with, or tooled with, these machines
End of season 2024:
– from June 8, the whole of July until August 30 we will be open every day 10-16.
– the last weekend in August and the whole of September we plan to be open Saturdays 11-16, Sundays 12-16.
Entrance is free, but we welcome donations: cash in the jar by the door, "swish" to no 123 365 1627, bank giro to no 5383-1467.
Paypal is another option:
You are always welcome to book outside the hours, or outside the season, by e-mail kontakt@bergdala-glastekniska-museum.se
You find us at GPS-coordinates N 56° 50' 05", E 15° 13' 19".
In the centre of Kingdom of Crystal you find Bergdala, having both a glassworks and a museum of glass technology
During the heyday of the glassworks era, from the beginning of the 19th century until recently in this area there were over a hundred glassworks.
Glassworks were important workplaces – only here in little Bergdala some 50 people did work in the business.
The glassworks was important for the whole neighbourhood: there were shops, eateries, a 'phone exchange, and the
farmers could sell firewood.
Bergdala: now we have, except for the glasssworks,
also a museum. (Sadly, both shops and eateries are long gone...)
We try to show the technical development in the glass industry from the end of the 18th century to around now.
Here you can see (and try out) machines that were once common at all glassworks, but now are all but unknown:
glass presses, a semi-automatic bottle machine, no less than four etching machines with slightly different functions,
hundreds of templates for the pantographs (two of the etching machines).
Read more here.
Most of the other glassworks were not very long-lived, and today there are only a handful still operating – and all the interesting studio works, of course! Read more about the glassworks and the studios here, at Glasriket.se (opens in new window).
"Kingdom of Crystal" – why here in Småland? Simply put: because of the ironworks. Read more about that here.
On this website you can also find historical documentation about glass-making techniques and machines, and also about their environmental impact. Read more on the pages "about hot glass techniques", "about cold glass techniques" and "glass as a material".
