Zweden - Sverige - Sweden

Lund University (Lunds universitet) has roots going back to 1425, when a Franciscan studium generale was founded next to the Lund Cathedral, making it the oldest institution of higher education in Scandinavia. After Sweden won the province Scania from Denmark in the Treaty of Roskilde, the current university was founded in 1666 on the location of the old studium generale. The university is traditionally housed in the centre of Lund, with over hundred buildings scattered around town, but most of them are concentrated in the city centre. Lund University is ranked among the world’s top 100 universities; it has 42.000 students and more than 7.500 staff members.

The botanical garden of Lund University is dating back to the year of 1690 and in those days located on the present site of the university building. In 1746 a new garden was laid out, which was in operation for more than 110 years. In 1862 the botanical garden moved again, now to its current location in central Lund. Today the garden covers 8 hectares and shows 7.000 species of plants. Two hundred plants grown in greenhouses, customized to nine different climate zones. The garden runs a diversified operation within the areas of botany, gardening and ecology, not only for education and research, but also serves as a tranquil park or inspirational source of ideas for visitors.

The Helsingborg Town Hall (or City Hall) - "Rådhuset" in Swedish - was ceremoniously inaugurated on the 7 January 1897. The building was designed by the architect Alfred Hellerström. This landmark of Helsingborg is built in a neo-Gothic style with towers and pillars, lavishly decorated facades and a 65-m high bell tower. Nowadays it is still the workplace for politicians and the government administration.

Sofiero slott (Sofiero Castle) lies a few kilometers north of Helsingborg. This country mansion was built in 1864 for Crown Prince Oscar II and Crown Princess Sofia (of Nassau-Weilburg). It has long been used as a summer residence for the Swedish royal family. It was expanded to its current size between 1874 and 1876, after crown prince Oscar had been crowned king Oscar II of Sweden and Norway. The castle lies in a flowering oasis of 10.000 plants, and 300 different varieties of rhododendron and various gardens; including an English and a Victorian garden. Until the year of 1973 Sofiero slott was the official summer residence of the royal family. King Gustaf VI Adolf donated the castle after his death to the city of Helsingborg. Nowadays the former palace can be visited and a part is used by a cafe/restaurant.

Torekov is a small village at the tip of the Bjärehalvön peninsula. Originally it was a fishing village, but nowadays a well-known holiday destination due to its ideal location at the sea with some beautiful beaches.

Örelids Stenar (or Örelids gravfält) is dating back to the Bronze Age and Early Iron Age. People of the village of Örelid buried their dead in this grave field. There are 36 standing stones from the Iron Age and four mounds from the Bronze Age. One of the mounds was examined in 1930; the archeologists found a bronze dagger and double buttons. Behind the church in Tjärby, Örelids Stenar stands out against the horizon, situated on a beach embankment from the final stage of the Ice Age. In the 1830s there were more than 100 standing stones in the grave field. In 1971 many fallen stones were re-erected.

Runestones are mostly raised stones with a runic inscription. These stones are often memorials to dead men and were usually brightly coloured when erected, though this is no longer evident as the colour has worn off. This tradition began in the 4th century and lasted into the 12th century. Most of them date from the late Viking Age and are located in Scandinavia (the majority however is found in Sweden, estimated around 2.000 of these stones). The Rökstenen (Runestone in Rök) is the most famous runestone of Sweden. It features the longest known runic inscription of the world in stone with 760 characters. The text is considered to be one of the earliest examples of writing in the Old Swedish language and it marks the beginning of the history of Swedish literature. The stone is almost four metres tall and was carved and erected most probably in the early 9th century, judging from the main runic alphabet used and the form of the language. Rökstenen is covered with runes on five sides; a few parts of the inscription are damaged, but most of it is readable. In the 11th century the stone was used for the building of a church in Rök. Rökstenen was discovered in the late 19th century in the wall of the church and then was placed on the graveyard. In 1933 it became a shed, protecting the stone for decay. There is also an information centre next to the stone.

During our visit in Sweden we were pleasantly surprised by the variety of wild flowers all over the country. These are poppies nearby Alvastra kloster - www.ipernity.com/doc/294067/40917200 - in Östergötland County.

Alvastra Abbey was founded by Cistercian monks from Clairvaux in France in the year of 1143 after a donation of land from King Sverker I of Sweden. It was the first Cistercian settlement in Sweden. The monastery is one of the oldest and was the largest of the country. Alvastra Abbey flourished for nearly 400 years, but after the Swedish Lutheran reformation in the 1530s, the monastery was demolished, never to be rebuilt. Construction materials - limestone from the nearby Omberg - were used among other things for building Vadstena Castle. The ruins have been restored and preserved in several phases. Nowadays it is one of the most important cultural sights in the province of Östergötland and open for visitors.

Vadstena Slott (Vadstena Castle) is a former royal castle, originally built by King Gustav I in 1545 as a fortress to protect Stockholm from possible attacks by the Danes and the Smålanders. The fortress consisted of three smaller stone buildings facing Lake Vättern, three 31-meter wide ramparts, a courtyard, a moat and four circular cannon turrets. However, the plans changed and in the 1550s the reconstruction from fortress into a habitable castle began and the buildings were turned into a Renaissance palace for Duke Magnus, the King’s son. It was not fully completed until 1620. It is still one of Sweden’s best examples of Renaissance architecture. Vadstena Castle was a royal palace until 1716, when the royal family lost interest in it; after which it became a storage barn for grain. The original ramparts were torn down in the 19th century and the present impressive ramparts were inaugurated in 1999 Since 1899, the castle has housed the Provincial Archives and nowadays it houses also the International Vadstena Academy, an opera house and the Castle Museum

Picture: Göta Canal between Borensberg and Vandrarhem Glasbruket after a rainy day. The ‘Göta kanal’ is a canal in Götaland with a length of 190.5 kilometers. It runs between Mem on the Baltic Sea and Sjötorp on the eastern shore of Lake Vänern. Together with the river ‘Gota älv’ and ‘Trollhätte kanal’ it connects Stockholm with Göteborg. . The canal - built between 1810 and 1832 - was an important link in the transportation of wood and iron. The promoter and building contractor was the Swedish admiral Baltzar von Platen. 87 kilometers of the canal was excavated manually by 58.000 soldiers. ‘Göta Kanal’ has a width which varies from 7 to 14 meters and a maximum depth of about 3 meters. At its highest point the canal is 91.8 meters above sea level and has 58 locks (PiP 1, one of the locks) along the way. Nowadays the waterway is only used by pleasure boats (Pip 2) and vintage canal boats like M/S Juno (PiP 3), launched in 1874 and specially designed to sail in the ‘Göta Kanal’. It is the world’s oldest registered ship with overnight accommodation.

The ‘Göta kanal’ is a canal in Götaland with a length of 190 kilometers. At its highest point the canal is 91.8 meters above sea level and has 58 locks. Nearby the village of Berg the canal has one flight of seven locks and another two double locks, raising and lowering boats more than 29 meters. The seven connected locks (main picture) are the longest flight of locks on the Göta Canal. They raise or lower boats almost 19 meters between Lake Roxen and harbour at Berg. The locks were built between 1815-1818 and officially named ‘Carl Johans slussar’ (after the Swedish King Karl XIV Johan).

Strömsholms Slott is one of the royal palaces in Sweden. It is built on the site of a former fortress from the mid 16th century and is located on an islet in the Kolbäck river, nearby Lake Mälaren. Strömsholm Slottwas built in 1669-1674 for Queen Hedvid Eleonora and designed by architect Nicodemus Tessin the Elder. The baroque palace with its remarkable yellow colour has 18th century interiors and an important collection of Swedish paintings. The palace consists of a central building framed by four square corner towers and a central domed tower. About twenty estate buildings were erected at the same time as the palace.

Anundshög is Sweden’s largest burial mound. It is 9 metres high with a diameter of 64 metres. It dates from the 6th to 8th century AD. The mound is built on a foundation of clay on which the dead were cremated. The remains were then covered with a mound of stones, which was covered by turf and earth. Many people were involved in the work of building Sweden’s largest burial mound. Anundshög offers further 11 burial mounds and 10 round stone settings. They vary in size between 6 and 30 metres in diameter. These graves were probably raised over members of different generations of the same family. On the grounds is one runestone (PiP), dedicated to Folkvid, a powerful man in the area at the beginning of the 11th century. He paid for the impressive rune stone to tell the world about his son and himself.

Enköping is one of Sweden´s most famous park and garden cities. It offers more than twenty centrally located parks and gardens. One of the most famous ones is Drömparken (Dream park), a unique perennial park with more than 200 different prennials and ornamental grasses. The park is designed and created by the Dutch garden architect Piet Oudolf using nature as inspiration. Drömparken was laid out in 1996 and enlarged in the year of 2002.

Härkeberga kyrka, standing on a small ridge in a further flat and green countryside, does look like many other small Swedish village churches. We had to wait twenty minutes before a carekeeper opened its door. Once inside we didn’t know not what we saw. This is without any doubt one of the most beautiful churches we have ever visited. Walls and ceilings are completely covered with beautiful murals. Härkeberga kyrka is dating back to the early 14th century. Few alterations were made, but mid 15th century the church was extended. Arches and vaults of the church are very richly decorated with frescos, which were made with lime paint by the famous artist Albertus Pictor around the year of 1480. The images of the paintings are based on both the Old and New Testament. They refer to the ‘Biblia Pauperum’, a medieval book that describes events from the Bible in pictures, especially for poor and illiterate people. The murals of the vaults at Härkeberga Church are unique because they have never been covered nor restored; what meets your eyes today is also what churchgoers in the Middle Ages did see. Colour is the only thing that has changed in Pictor’s work; at the time they were made the colours were much stronger and made an even greater impact. What we today as dark brown or black was red, because the kind of paint used for the red colour has simply oxidized with time.

Gamla Uppsala (Old Uppsala) is a village about 5 km’s north of Uppsala. In the early days (3rd and 4th century and onwards) it was an important centre and well known as the residence of the Swedish kings. During the Middle Ages, it was the largest village of the province of Uppland. Gamla Uppsala became also the spiritual center, when a cathedral was constructed there. People have been buried in Gamla Uppsala for 2.000 years and originally there were more than 2.000 mounds around the village. Nowadays only 250 barrows remain the area, but it is still well known for its archaeological remains. Most famous are the three large barrows dating back to the 5th and 6th century: ‘Kungshögarna’ or Royal mounds. Even after excavations in the late 19th century archaeologists were unable to identify the bodies of the mounds, but they were quite certain the mounds belonged to a royal dynasty. As Sweden’s oldest national symbols, the royal mounds have retained their significance. The three mounds are known today as the Eastern, Middle, and Western Mound.

Sigtuna is Sweden’s oldest medieval city. The main street with many coloured wooden houses brings one to the ‘Stora Torget’ with the (former) city hall. Without any doubt this ‘Rådhus’ is one of the nicest buildings of the town. It is considered being the smallest city hall in Europe with just two rooms. One of them was used by the city council, the other was the ‘police station’ and had two cells for prisoners. In 1737 the old town hall was in a state of disrepair and the mayor decided to build a new one. The inhabitants of Sigtuna brought together the funds for the construction and in the year of 1744 the new town hall was inaugurated. Today, the ‘Rådhus’ is part of the Sigtuna Museum.