läckö slott

Rounding out the southern aide of Lake Vänern, we ventured up the peninsula of the municipality of Lidköping and onto the picturesque island of Kållandsö, the second largest of the enormous lake and visited the medieval castle at land’s end. Originally a fortification of the local diocese, with the sweeping reforms of our Gustav I. Vasa, the nearly deposed, who made the monarchy heritable rather than elective of the landed gentry, converted the country to protestantism and appropriated church property and made Sweden a European power, it fell to various favourites of the court and caretakers who oversaw its expansion as an impressive receiving stage for visiting dignitaries.  Today it is a national monument and hosts a series of outdoor operas in the courtyard during the summer.

kristinehamn

Driving a few kilometers to the city on the shore of Lake Vänern—the larger of the two and biggest in all of the European Union, third on the continent, we marveled at the Brick Gothic Kristinehamns kyrka opened in 1858 and informed by a similar construction boom after the Wiesbaden school to my mind.  On the lakefront preceding the harbor, there is a monumental sculpture from Pablo Picasso looking into the blue expanse, the fifteen meter high pillar the artist‘s largest and part of a series called „les dames des Mougins.“ Not overseeing the construction in person, the location of the installation was reportedly a contest between Sweden and Norway, with the latter ultimately conceding.  Just outside of town in a meadow of daisies and guarded by a flock of sheep stands the Järsberg Runestone, a bit less verbose than the previous, the inscription is one of the oldest known. Essentially „I made a thing,“ the writing is translated as „Leubaz I am called…I, the earl, write the runes.“

sveafallen

After finding a campsite by Möckeln Lake in Degerfors, we went to the Cultural Centre with an ensemble of boutiques for handicrafts and local artist that was also the location of a micro-geological nature reserve that compressed various landscapes, miniature canyons, boulder-strewn forests, marsh-land into one compact park created by glacial erosion over the aeons and a rushing river under a primordial ice-sheet—though some more dramatic theories posit the environment was formed by an extinct massive waterfall, many times bigger than Niagara. 

Parts reminding us of home, there were also remarkable examples of weathering including glacial potholes called giant‘s kettles. In the end, we found the Bergteich—and though the trail was a bit of a parkour with climbing and jumping that was a fun challenge and treacherous at times, the markings were a bit wanting for first-time visitors, disorienting like the way-out markings in an IKEA that leads one through the entire store before one can find the exit. A bit of a hike for sure but a fine comparative introduction to the plant life and geology of the country.

askersund

Watching the sheep troop for a last inspection and rotation, we left our campsite on the Göta Canal and headed towards the northern reaches of the Vättern and the land in between the great lakes, stopping to visit at Askersund on the edges of the Tiveden Forest.  Once an important trade and industrial centre—a zinc mining operation occurring nearby—that heritage reflected in the the symbol of the city, according those rights despite its small size, a smith hammering an anvil, also sort of a mascot, atop city hall (Rådhus)—and ensemble of old wooden fishing houses and a monumental church overlooking the harbor. Afterwards we headed on to Värmland and the community of Degerfors.

the stone ship of nässja

Though slightly smaller than the last megalith and not presently on a cliff overlooking the sea, this oval of twenty-four giant boulders near Vastena was nonetheless a pretty remarkable setting to contemplate. Sacred oak in the centre spared, traditional wisdom held that these rings were the tribunal sites for pagan judgments and trial-by-ordeal to be carried out. Subsequent scholarship and excavations suggest that these were burial grounds for tribal chieftains—likely dating from the early Iron Age.

elder fuþark

After visiting the impressive cloister ruins of Avestra, we doubled back before continuing through Östergötland to the village of Rök Whose parish church hosts the famous runestone (Rökstenen, Rundata inscription number 136), the five tonne megalith considered the first written document of Sweden and thus the starting point of recorded history was rediscovered in the nineteenth century as part of the medieval church’s wall. Removing it for study and conservation—revived interest in such artefacts coinciding the 1865 deciphering of the runic alphabet by Norwegian academics retrieving a lexicon lost to the ages, at around seven hundred characters, the inscription represents the longest extant pre-Christian passage and contains a bit of Norde mythology and a reference to the Roman emperor of the latter day rump state—dating the writing to the ninth century.  Most scholars agree on the translation but many forward competing theories on allegorical interpretation. There was also an informative exhibit on runic writing in an outdoor pavilion and signs reminding that the church was open and welcomed one’s visit as well.

mervärdeskatt

Having arrived late at our third choice campsite near the city of Vadstena—for which everything ultimately worked out though it was extra driving, on the lakefront, we opted instead for pizza from the resident restauranteur and we’re delighted to discover not only the Swedish version of the meal that one can’t get wrong (doughy but cheesy and delicious) but also that the twelve percent value added tax applied to take-out is called—because we taught you how to budget and cook for yourself—is abbreviated as “Moms.” 

Skydad alternatively is the Swedish term for protection, security. Though the campgrounds were crowded,the protracted period of dusk as the sun never quite sets afforded some nice vistas of the lake beyond.

vägarna attraktioner

Traveling on towards Götaland following the shoreline of Sweden’s second largest great lake—the sixth largest in the whole of Europe and thrice the size of Lake Constance (Boddensee), we spent quite a few hours circumnavigating the large body of water, whose name just means that though more rhapsodic academics maintain it refers to the ancient personifications, deifications of the source of sustenance and commerce of the region. 

A motorway rest stop offered a pedestrian link under the elevated highway to the grounds of the ruined, unfinished structure called the Brahehus, with a commanding, panoramic view of the lake and the island Visingsö. First conceived as a spot for prime real estate development, Count Per Brahe the Younger decided to build on the promontory called Gudsbacka in the 1630s—offering the monumental retreat as a dower home for his new wife. 

Sadly his bethrothed Countess Kristina Katarina Stenbock died soon after construction began. Plans were altered and the mansion found some use as a guest house for dignitaries but its location made upkeep logistical impossible. Count Brahe founded the town of Granna on the shore below in 1651, orientated to face Brahehus.

slottruin

After departing from our natural campground in the woods at the border of the farmstead on the shores of Helgasjön, we first visited the nearby ruins of the fortress Kronoberg, built originally as a summer retreat for the bishop of Växjö, destroyed during the Dano-Swedish War in 1470, rebuilt and fortified and eventually appropriated by Gustav I with the country’s conversion to protestantism. 

 Our rebel leader Nils Dacke captured the castle in 1542, nearly repudiating the king’s authority by depriving the army, albeit temporarily, of this strategic stronghold. 

The eventual retreat of the border from Småland to Öresund meant Kronoberg lost military significance and fell into disrepair.  Continuing north towards the Vättern region, the lesser of the great lakes—we stopped to inspect the old church of a village called Hjälmseyrd 

the glass realm

Continuing through the heavily wooded, sparsely peopled royal charter called Sweden’s Gladriket—Emmaboda and surrounding forges like the internationally renowned Kosta Boda, the host village renamed for the successful glasbruk commissioned by the king of two entrepreneurs Anders Koskull and Georg Bogislaus Staël von Holstein to promote the manufacture of practical glass products (Ko + Sta being a portmanteau of the two founders’ names).  Along the way, we stopped at a studio and boutique set up in a former glashutte, workshop with the grounds and outbuildings decorated with enchanting art glass objects.  A bit further on, we visited a nature enclosure for moose (Alces alces, Älg, Elch) and learned quite a lot about their behaviour and habitat and got to encounter them quite up close, which is not something we’d like experiencing on the motorway, though it would be rather majestic to find one at the campsite.

vissefjärda

Our first stop in the forested finger lakes district of Småland known as Sweden‘s Crystal Empire (Glasriket, more to follow and of course both important fuel for the industry and enterprise) was the village of Visselfjärda spread across an archipelago of tiny islands and dominated by the 1773 church (kyrka) with detached bell tower—a common feature of sacred architecture of this region. Directly opposite the churchyard is a boulder monument to native son Nils Dacke who as a yeomen in 1523 rose up to lead a revolutionary peasant army and nearly succeeded in deposing the king, thereby securing more rights for farmers including a lower tax burden and continued cross-border trade with their area’s recent concession from Denmark.