Grönvik glasbruk (en. The Glassworks of Grönvik) or simply Grönvik was a glassworks in the present-day Grönvik village in Korsholm, Western Finland. It was founded by merchant Johan Grönberg and existed from 1812 to 1907. Several glass manufactures were produced at Grönvik. At first bottles and drinking-glass were made here, but beginning in the 1890s solely window glass. Also pharmaceutical glass was manufactured. The glassworks produced as the first factory in Finland pressed glass, which came about from the 1840s. The domestic market for glass was during the time of the glassworks smallish and glassblowing products were exported to e.g. Lübeck, Saint Petersburg, Stockholm and Denmark, as well as to other parts of Europe. Grönvik was able to successfully assert its position, despite the competition from other glassworks in Finland. Eventually, it became the most distinguished in the country. The glassworks also become the largest in the Nordic countries.
The glassworks of Grönvik had a quite large significance to the surrounding area. At Grönvik provisions, wood and ashes were bought. The own forests of the glassworks were preferably not used as firewood to let the trees grow to ship timber. Grönvik furthermore gave the opportunity of earnings. It counteracted emigration from the villages nearby as a great number of people in Jungsund and Iskmo were employed there. The glass-blowers, whose professional skills were considerable, often came from far away. There were employees from Belgium, France, Germany and Sweden. The industrial community flourished in the time of prosperity of the glassworks, there was exuberant activity and several languages of Europe were being used.
The glass making was usually going on for eight months a year, after which it had to be at a standstill to allow for the cleaning of the furnaces. The employees were paid during this four-month period too. Buildings for accommodation had also been constructed for the workers, who during the company's most prosperous times were around 100 in number. In summer, glass chests were transported to Vaasa on the two towboats of the glassworks.
In connection with the factory there were for some time a minor earthenware foundry and a shipbuilding yard, established by Johan Grönberg, where several ships were constructed, as well as 1831–1876 the rag paper-mill of Jungsund, also founded by Grönberg. Furthermore, there has been a tilery and a forge related to the glassworks. The mansion of Grönvik was the main building of the glassworks. After a fire in 1917, the only remaining buildings from the glassworks today, is the mansion and ruins of a stable from 1832, which was destroyed in the fire. On its property, Grönvik glasbruk had the first gardens, and also the most extended, in Iskmo-Jungsund, with a highly advanced horticulture. There is, to the west of the mansion, a large garden that was laid out already in the early times of the glassworks.
History
1812–1843
Probably as a result of the Finnish war, the glassworks of Berga in Pörtom most likely had been closed down temporarily, causing a shortage of a variety of glass products in the Vaasa region. Furthermore, the long distances to functioning glass factories made the transport of glass products to the area troublesome and expensive, raising the price on glass. To remedy the shortage, tradesman Johan Grönberg (1777–1843) from Vaasa tendered a request on 23 March 1812 to found a glassworks in Grönvik, on the land he had bought two weeks earlier, to the Imperial Cabinet of Ministers in Turku. On 30 July the request was approved and Grönberg obtained licences for production. It seems however, as he had incepted the construction of buildings around late winter and early springtime. Grönberg discovered previously overlooked natural wealth in Grönvik. The glassworks were to be built on the seaboard, on the land he had purchased. The location was excellent for the glassworks. It was possible to have a good harbour in the vicinity and the harbour established was by means of the time gratifying and served the purpose of being in receipt of raw material and affreighting glass. On the shores in Grönvik there were plenty of sand and silicon, which were needed for the production of glass. The archipelago with the large forests was important, as it would provide fuel for the glassworks. The southward way to Vaasa was by land about 25 kilometres and 35 kilometres by water. If the glassworks of Berga, as assumed, had been stopped over, this would have made Grönvik the only glassworks in the more northern parts of Finland. There were in that case much larger prospects for the sale of the glass made at Grönvik.