World Heritages in Sweden

By | August 7, 2021

Agricultural landscape of southern Öland (World Heritage)

About a third of the area of ​​Öland is a World Heritage Site, which honors the tradition and the agricultural use of the island, which is adapted to the special natural geographic framework. Numerous medieval row villages with their old courtyards and walls have been preserved to this day.

Agricultural landscape of southern Öland: facts

Official title: Agricultural landscape of southern Öland
Cultural monument: Old cultural and natural landscape with 5000 years of history, partly with medieval row villages, often with early Gothic courtyards; Buildings mostly built in layers; open heathland “Great Alvar” with karst soils and flora adapted to extreme drought and flooding; partly endemic occurrences such as Öland sunflower or Alvar wormwood; shallow lake areas between the coast and cultivated areas, used as pastureland for millennia; diverse flora including flour primroses and orchids; important resting place for migratory birds, but also for breeding water birds and waders; fenced in with stone walls after being abandoned as a hunting area
Continent: Europe
Country: Sweden
Location: Öland, southeast of Kalmar, off the southeast coast of Sweden
Appointment: 2000
Meaning: Unique example of a cultural landscape that is thousands of years old

Agricultural landscape of southern Öland: history

around 3000 BC Chr. First verifiable cultivation of Öland
around 1100-1400 Establishment of row villages
1569 Declaration of Öland to the royal hunting ground by King John III.
1801 Abolition of the royal hunting ground; then division of the area

Great Copper Mountain in Falun (World Heritage)

The historical industrial landscape in Falun emerged in 1288 with the establishment of the mining settlement. Falun was one of the largest copper producers in the world well into the 19th century. After the mine was closed in 1993, it became a mining museum.

Great Mountain of Copper in Falun: Facts

Official title: Historic industrial landscape “Great Copper Mountain” in Falun
Cultural monument: Site of copper ore mining since the 13th century in Falun in the “Great Copper Mountain”; outstanding importance for the economic existence of Sweden in the 16th and 17th centuries; temporary promotion of two thirds of world demand; Mining and copper production as the engine of the country’s development into a major European power; Landscape with around 4,000 aboveground and underground mining sites, open-cast pits with spoil heaps, copper smelters from the 14th century near Hosjö, numerous workshops for copper processing and living quarters for the miners; historical city center of Falun with a network of streets from 1642
Continent: Europe
Country: Sweden
Location: Falun, northwest of Stockholm
Appointment: 2001
Meaning: Unique industrial landscape; outstanding influence on the development of mining worldwide

Great Copper Mountain in Falun: History

5000 BC Chr. First settlement in the region
around 800 Start of mining in Falun
1288 Trade letter, issued by King Magnus Ladulås, as the oldest surviving document about the copper mining in
Falun
1347 Royal letter of privilege regulating mining, settlement and trade
1357 Start of smelting
1624 Minting of the first coins on behalf of the state (until 1855)
1641 City rights for Falun from Queen Christine
1662 Construction of the »Creutz Schacht«, 200 m high wooden wall as the highest wooden structure in the world
1687 “Stora Stöten” crater from catastrophic collapse of a mine
1879 First attempts with machine-driven drills
1922 Opening of the mining museum in the administration building built 1771–85
1993 Last demolition and cessation of mining operations

Varberg radio station (World Heritage)

According to computerannals, the Grimeton radio station in the municipality of Varberg in southwest Sweden, which went into operation in 1924, documents the history of wireless transatlantic communication. Today Grimeton is the only surviving and functioning long-wave transmitter, the entire ambience of which from the 1920s is completely present.

Varberg radio station: facts

Official title: Varberg radio station
Cultural monument: Grimeton radio station near Varberg with transmission equipment, including six steel towers (each 127 m high) and a housing estate for employees, built in the neoclassical style by Carl Akerblad; Total area of ​​approx. One square kilometer; Alternator as the most important building
Continent: Europe
Country: Sweden
Location: Grimeton, Varberg, southern Sweden
Appointment: 2004
Meaning: Early Witness Transatlantic Wireless Communication; The only surviving example of a larger transmission station from the time of pre-electronic technology

Varberg radio station: history

1825 Development of wireless telegraphy using radio waves by the Italian Marconi
1920 Decision for the construction of a long wave transmitter for telegraphy and a receiving station by the Swedish parliament
1922-24 Structure of the radio station
1.12.1924 Commissioning of the radio station with the technology developed by Ernst FW Alexanderson
2.7.1925 Official inauguration of the radio station by King Gustav V.
1930 Conversion from long wave communication to short wave communication
1999 Cessation of operations

Farmhouses in Hälsingland (World Heritage)

The decorative furnishings of the seven houses from the early 18th century represent the wealth of the free farmers.

Farmhouses in Hälsingland: facts

Official title: Wooden farmhouses in the province of Hälsingland
Cultural monument: A total of seven Hälsinge farmhouses in timber construction from the 18th and 19th centuries in central Sweden (a total of approx. 1,000 still existing houses); Symbol for the prosperity of the independent farmers and their increased social status; spacious buildings, furnished inside with a multitude of colorful paintings and wall paintings on wood in the style of a combination of folk art and baroque or rococo; outside decoration by carving
Continent: Europe
Country: Sweden
Location: Stene, Vallsta, Långhed, Letsbo, Asta, Hälsingland province, 200 km north of Stockholm, central Sweden
Appointment: 2012
Meaning: Outstanding and artistic evidence of the wealth and prosperity of independent farmers; unique combination of wooden construction with folk art traditions; impressive example of the continuation of a long cultural tradition

Farmhouses in Hälsingland (World Heritage)