Blogs from Sweden, Europe - page 7

Kopalnia w Falun Od kopalni lazurytu w Afganistanie 8000 lat temu po złoża ziem rzadkich w dzisiejszych Chinach, monopol na wydobycie surowców naturalnych był kołem zamachowym i źródłem bogactwa całych regionów. W XVII wieku taką rolę wobec Królestwa Szwecji odegrała kopalnia miedzi w Falun. Zaspokajając 2/3 ówczesnego zapotrzebowania Europy na miedź, kopalnia stała się głównym źródłem dochodu i pozwoliła na sfinansowanie niezwykle kosztownych wojen, które rzuciły na kolana potęgi takie jak Święte Cesarstwo Rzymskie i Rzeczpospolitą. Chociaż w Falun wydobywano miedź już od X wieku, to pełnię świetności kopalnia osiągnęła w wieku XVII, gdy wydobywano do 3000 ton miedzi na rok. Na dzisiejsze standardy jest to ilośćraczej niewielka, ale w czasach przedindustrialnych była ona zawrotna. Właśnie to powoduje, że kopalnia, a także jej n... read more

What is a runestone? A runestone is a raised stone with a carved runic inscription and additional ornaments. Thousands of runestones were erected in Scandinavia in the Viking Age. Today, the majority of runestones is presented at or near the place of its discovery, making the Swedish countryside dotted with these majestic stones. Where are the runestones today? Some are in museums, some are lost, but thousands of them are scattered throughout the Swedish countryside. The rundata database lists thousands of runestones. The area most densely populated with runestones is Uppland. Here is the map of 103 runestones I have visited mostly around Uppsala, the capital of Uppland. When living in Sweden discovering runestones was a fre... read more

A journey into our literary heritage Astrid Lindgren was a Swedish author who mainly wrote children stories. She wrote stories about Pippi Longstocking, Emil of Lönneberga, Karlsson-on-the-Roof, the Six Bullerby Children and many more. Many of the stories Astrid Lindgren wrote are so well known in Sweden that virtually everybody know about them. Astrid Lindgren was born in Vimmerby in Småland District and several of her stories are based on places in Småland and on her childhood memories. When we travelled from Öland back to Stockholm we decided to make a sma... read more

Stone ships, stone walls, a stone polishing machine, stone quarries and rune stones We are now going to write about the rest of what we saw and did when we visited Öland. In the title we claim that it covers the southern half of the island. Please don't look too closely at a map. Because we have taken some liberty with what actually is in the north and in the south. Borgholm Town There are no cities on Öland. In fact the entire population on Öland is only around 26,000. Mostly the communities on Öland consist of villages and hamlets. If we are generous we could say that there are two towns, Färjestaden (6000 people live there) and Borgholm (the home of 4000). Told you, we have to be generous to label them towns. In the ... read more

In early March we took our trusty car and drove down to Västergötland District for a weekend. Ake grew up in this part of Sweden, so we've been here many times and know it fairly well. We might one day dedicate an entire blog entry to the sites in and around the village where Ake grew up. There are plenty of interesting things to see there so such a blog entry would make sense. But that's for some other time. Here we will focus on the places we visited on this short trip. But for the fun of it we have also gone through our archives and we have thrown in a few additional photos taken at previous visits to this region. Källby Källby is the village where Ake grew up. When we drove down we ... read more