In northern Uppland's forests lies Lövstabruk, once one of the world's leading ironworks, and the financial engine behind Sweden's empire-building. The royal ironworks was a world of its own, having reached the size of a Swedish town by the eighteenth century. It was set up in 1596 and in 1641 the Waloon/Dutchman Louis De Geer bought Lövsta. With the immigrant owners came a 200-year period of greatness in Swedish ironworking. Louis De Geer recruited blacksmiths and furnace builders from his old home region of Wallonia.