Sweden, evening walking tour of Oskarshamn. The town with the oldest longest sofa?
Welcome! Today we're in Oskarshamn, a town claiming to have the worlds oldest, longest, wooden sofa. I do have some questions about that thing, but let's save if for when we're there. We start our walk on "Lilla Torget" (the small square), it used to be known as "Salutorget" (the sale square) The old name coming from the fact that this used to be the local market place.
Here's a map showing a lot of points of interest in Oskarshamn. We will not visit all of them, but quite a few. Oskarshamn was originally called "Döderhultsvik" (Döderhults bay) The name came from the fact that this is where "Döderhultsbäcken" (the Döderhult stream) exits into the Baltic sea. Döderhultsvik started as a fishing village and became a "Köping" under the town of Kalmar in 1646.
At that time, most forms of trade was only allowed inside towns, that way taxes could be collected at the town gates. A "Köping" was a special case, allowing limited trade without having its own town privileges. In 1856 it Döderhultsvik was finally granted town privileges of its own by the king Oscar I. At the same time it was also renamed to Oskarshamn (Oscar's harbor). There are some signs that people have lived here far longer than the documented history.
There are some roughly 3000 year old rock carvings just outside Oskarshamn. And some stone age objects have been found on both sides of the Döderhult stream. Axel Martin Fredrik Munthe (1857–1949) was a physician and psychiatrist born in Oskarshamn. The reason I'm mentioning him is that this is a statue of him and the dog Puck. It was made by the artist Annette Rydström and donated to Oskarshamn in 2012 by Alf Josefsson and his family. Axel Munthe is probably best known for his book "The Story of San Michele".
The book was published in 1929 and became a global bestseller, it has been translated to over 40 languages. The book is a mixture of an autobiography and fiction. in 1892 Axel Munthe was appointed physician of the Swedish royal family. He also became the personal physician of the crown princess (who later became Queen), Victoria of Baden. There was even rumors that they became lovers, with both books and movies telling the tales of their secret love. But I do not know if there's been any confirmation of their relationship or if the stories are fiction based on the rumors.
Since Victoria was married to King Gustav V, if she had an affair with Munthe it would have had to been kept a secret. Across the street now is "Hamnkyrkan" (the harbor church), formerly known as "MIssionskyrkan" (the mission church). Sadly, I don't know much about its history. All I found was a very old photo (with no date). Together with the photo was a text saying that the dock-workers took loans to help fund the construction of the church. And that they then had to work overtime to pay back their loans.
But that's all the information I've found, so I don't even know how old the building is. This word, "Fisk", is the Swedish word for fish, and this is "Fisktorget" (the fish square). Since they clearly indicated they didn't want people walking near the signs, I could not get very close. That meant I couldn't read much of the text from the video, I had instead hoped to find online resources. Sadly, there wasn't much to be found online either, so this is what little I could read by zooming in on the video.
Obviously, given the name, this is where the fishermen used to come and sell their fish. It wasn't just the fishermen coming here though, other people also came here to sell their goods, such as potatoes. In 1944 it was decided that the only things allowed to be sold here was fish and shellfish. Then in the 1950s the again opened up for a few more things to be sold, such as hens, rabbits and canned food.
All sales of fish on the square ended in the late 1970s. In 2019 they tore down the old market building (consisting of roof-covered stalls) here and built what we see today. So the building remained for several decades while unused before they removed it.
looking at older photos in the street view of google maps, you can still see the old market building. This area we are entering now is called "Fnyket", it's one of the two oldest parts of Oskarshamn. The other one is called "Besväret" and we will get there soon. Both these areas have buildings from the 19th century. My first thought walking up here was that the area on the left was for wheelchairs. But it just seems way to steep for that, I wouldn't even want to ride a bike there.
I guess the old road was just that steep before they built the stairs? I can only imagine how scary it would be walking there in the winter when it is covered in ice. Now we're at the "Besväret" area, as mentioned, it's the one of the oldest parts of Oskarshamn. "Besväret" translates to "the trouble" or "the annoyance", it seems like and odd name for a residential area. We started our walk at "Lilla torget" (the small square) and now we're at "Stora torget" (the big/main square).
I haven't found much history on the buildings around here but it seems this hotel building is from the early 20th century. We're now back at "Lilla torget" but we're still far from done, we're not even half way through our walk. This is the Saga movie theater built in the 1940s.
This building is "Kulturhuset" (the culture house), here you can find the library, museums, exhibits and other things. This is "Ankdammen" (the duck pond), but it seems to me like there's more seagulls than ducks here. This is the Oskarshamn church. Construction of the church started in 1874 and the architect was J.P. Schonberg. It was inaugurated on December 3, 1876.
It's a shame there's scaffolding hiding part of the building. I don't know why, but I feel like I've seen an unreasonably large amount of scaffolding covering buildings lately. Maybe I just didn't notice it before I started making videos. but now it's always a disappointment to find a building covered with scaffolding. At least it's a good thing to know that they take care of and preserve the old buildings.
This is a memorial for Johan Fredrik Hultenheim (1802–1869) who made great contributions for the growth of Oskarshamn. He was, among other things, one of the people advocating for Oskarshamn to get town privileges. Before coming here I saw pictures of this fountain, it's looks a lot nicer when there is water flowing in it. This the veteran monument, built in 2020, honoring the UN Peace keeping veterans from the Oskarshamn municipality. The text on the monument reads "I fredens tjänst" which translates to "in the service of peace" . I wasn't sure what this was at first, but the sign tells us it's part of the disc golf, or frisbeegolf, course.
And in case you don't know what that is, it's like a golf course, but you throw frisbees into nets instead of hitting golf balls into holes. This statue is called "Måsen" (the gull) and it is made by Karl-Gunnar Lindahl (1918-1978). I have to admit I had to look at it for a while before I understood the shape of the gull. This is the Oskarshamn train station built in 1906 and designed by Georg A. Nilsson. This sign tells us that the artwork in the middle of the roundabout is called "Stävarv". It was made by Carl Bloom in 1997 and was inspired by "Koggen" (the cog) a ship wreck salvaged outside Mockebo.
Here we have "stadshuset" (the town hall). It's worth mentioning that in Swedish there are two words translating to town hall. "Stadshuset" is the more modern one describing current administrative buildings. "Rådhuset" is the older one, often used in a more historical context.
This sign tells us that we're getting close to "Långa soffan" (the long sofa). And here we have it, the worlds oldest, longest, wooden sofa, built in 1867 and it is 72 meters (236 feet) long. It was built as a place for the wives to sit and look out at the harbor while waiting for their husbands to return from the sea. But the title "the worlds oldest, longest, wooden sofa" raises so many questions.
Admittedly, the Swedish word "Soffa" has more translations than "sofa", but none matches what we see here. To me, this looks like a bench (or what we in Sweden would call a "bänk"). And searching online for the worlds longest bench I find several that are a lot longer than this one. So can they claim the title of worlds longest because they call it a "soffa" rather than a "bänk"? Or maybe it is because they also claim it's the oldest? All the long benches I've found are built later than 1867. So perhaps this is the longest wooden bench built in 1867 or earlier? The island in front of us is called "Badholmen" (the bath island). It used to be owned by the previously mentioned Johan Fredrik Hultenheim but in 1856 he donated it to the town.
And that is all for this tour of Oskarshamn, I hope you've enjoyed it! Thank you for watching!
2024-07-07 07:55
