Military Airfield 16

Less than a year before the outbreak of World War II, the Swedish Air Force began to address lack of operational airfields. In June 1939 the government allocated money for the setting up of 20 operational airfields, of which Airfield 16 at Brattforsheden was one. Construction started immediately and the airfield was ready for use in 1940.
The airfield was enlarged in 1943 with a cookhouse/dining room building and a Type B camouflage hangar was added to the barracks area. All of these buildings have been preserved.

In summer 2003 the Värmland Administrative Board took the decision to create a cultural heritage site at Airfield 16 at Brattforsheden. The aim of the project was to preserve the characteristic atmosphere of the era of military mobilisation during the Second World War, 1939-1945. The site will preserve and protect both material objects and the intangible values of that period: the existing buildings, the airfield itself and the surrounding forest area, together with the traditions and memories that remain from those days.
The cultural site will also protect and preserve the natural life of the area, including the insect population, which is presently threatened. The airfield is thus an area of great interest, not only because of the well-preserved military installation from the 1940s, but also its valuable biological heritage, all of which will take the interested visitor back to days gone by.