Click on the map to find the walk. By clicking on each object, you can see more pictures, both new and historical, of the buildings and places.
Arvika Railway Station
In 1871, the entire north-western main line between Stockholm and Christiania (Oslo) was inaugurated with a celebration in Arvika. The station building, designed by SJ’s chief architect Adolf Wilhelm Edelsvärd, was completed in 1867, at the same time as the first section of the line.
The station became a clearly monumental backdrop with the square spread out in front of it, so stately that the residents of Karlstad wondered if the drawings had been confused with the smaller station in the capital.
Edelsvärd had ideas about an ideal city plan where the station building stood opposite the church, as the city’s two most important buildings, which became true in 1911 with the Trinity Church on the hill.
Arvika Square
If the street network is the skeleton of the city, then the square is its heart! The railway station forms the backdrop, and at the other end of Torggatan you can see the Trinity Church on the hill. Before the railway was built, the square had direct access to the harbour and was the most important place for trade. Even today, there is a market every Wednesday and Saturday. The popular Arvikamârten market takes place in October.
It was around the square that the largest and most magnificent buildings were erected around the turn of the 20th century. Dahlinshuset was one of them, which tragically burned down on New Year’s Eve 2016. In its place stands a building that blends in with its surroundings, designed by Brunnberg & Forshed.
The square also features the sculpture Fågelmannen (Bird Man) by Liss Eriksson from 1971 and ‘Händelser vid torget’ (Events at the Square) by Ingrid Falk from 2021
Nordells konditori (Nordells bakery)
Bread has been baked in this building since 1852, when Christina Mebius ran the bakery. Nordells Konditori opened in 1911, when Johan Linus Nordell took over the premises. Over the years, it has become an institution in the café town of Arvika.
It offers fresh bread from its own bakery, cakes and pastries, but also more substantial options such as pizza. During the warmer months, you can take your tray outside under the pergola, which has been there since 1943. Here, water trickles and sparrows chirp and peck at a few breadcrumbs if they are lucky.
The L.P. Svensson House
A building often referred to as Arvika’s most beautiful is the L.P. Svensson House at Storgatan 26. It was commissioned by Lars Petter Svensson and designed by architect Svante Dyhlén.
It is a stately four-storey building crowned by towers with onion domes and beautiful iron spires. The facades have relatively new iron balconies, which have been recreated to resemble the originals. Around the turn of the century, it was a new phenomenon to erect such tall buildings with ornate plastered facades, mainly in the square and the central shopping streets.
This corner building is a fine example of such stone architecture. It must have been impressive when it was completed in 1901, in a market town that had almost exclusively two-storey wooden buildings.
Arvika Konsthall (Arvika Art Gallery)
Arvika Art Gallery is located at Storgatan 22, looking like a small pink cake, grand despite its small size. The building was constructed in 1903 by Kristinehamn’s private bank in a Baroque-inspired style with Art Nouveau features. Kristinehamn’s coat of arms, featuring a ship, is displayed in the crest that crowns the centre of the façade. The roof is covered with beautifully carved slate tiles.
Since 1973, Arvika Art Gallery has been located here, showing around ten art exhibitions per year, often by relevant and contemporary artists. Workshops and concerts are also held here. Take the opportunity to see the beautiful chandelier in the art gallery’s large hall and the sculpture Mette III by Liss Eriksson outside the entrance.
Hedenskogshuset
Hedenskogshuset was built by Anders Gustaf Hedenskog in 1925. He was the initiator of the Västra Värmlands Fornminnesförening (Western Värmland Antiquarian Society), which started the Sågudden Open-Air Museum in the early 1900s.
Hedenskog had his art and antiques shop on the ground floor of the house. ‘Lilla slottet’ (The Little Castle), as it was popularly known, is a fine example of Swedish 1920s classicism. The decorations with Ionic pilasters, garlands, niches and dentil mouldings are all taken from classical architecture. Architect Ludvig Mattsson designed many beautiful buildings in Arvika.
On the gable of the house, you can see the modern mural ‘The Griffin’ by Wild Drawing and, on the other side of the street, ‘Pipe Dream’ by Nomad Clan.
Lokal
Lokal in Arvika is a shop selling local products, food and handicrafts. The shop is an extension of the historic Te-Affär’n next door. The owners had noticed an increased demand for products from local producers and decided to expand their business. In addition to benefiting local businesses, there is also an environmental aspect to not having to transport goods long distances. The shop often stocks fresh bread, vegan spreads, cheese, eggs and vegetables.
Stadshotellet Scandic Arvika
The Stadshotellet is, by all accounts, the oldest building in the town centre, built in 1815 by the merchant Josef Segersten. In the mid-19th century, it housed what would be unthinkable today: a pub on the ground floor and a public school on the upper floor. The school was also financed by the sale of spirits.
The building has been extended over the years, with a hotel garden added in 1887 and a banquet hall in 1888. At the eaves, there is a long row of beautiful roof brackets in the shape of volutes. From the mid-1980s, the name was Hotel Oscar Statt, but today it is Scandic Arvika.
Elins bakgård (Elin’s Backyard)
Creating a genuine, local feel in a newly built house is an art form. But builder Åke Gunner and restaurant owner Elin Göransdotter Järnesund succeeded in doing just that when the café and restaurant Elin’s Backyard opened its doors in 2017.
It is clear that a lot of effort has been put into the details, with older furniture, crockery and a glass veranda with coloured glass. A central feature is a tiled stove that was saved from the fire in Dahlinshuset by the square in Arvika on New Year’s Eve 2015. The café also sells handicrafts and local design. But the main attraction is lunch and afternoon tea, for which Elins bakgård has been included in the White Guide.
City Konditori (City Bakery)
Arvika is a café town where most Arvika residents have their own favourite café. Some choose City Konditoriet, which has retained its period décor from when the café opened in the mid-1940s.
The building was designed by Werner Gjerming, who designed many public and private modernist buildings in Arvika during his time as city architect from 1938 to 1968. ‘Cityhuset’ was a modern creation with space for both a department store and a café in each corner, as well as apartments above. The charming neon sign remains, and the building is overall a gem typical of the 1940s, well worth popping into on a rainy day for a cup of coffee and a pastry.
KP-huset (The KP House)
‘A modern furniture store without equal in rural Sweden,’ wrote journalists in 1946 when the new KP Furniture store was completed. Owner Jenny Nilsson had been in Stockholm, where she was inspired by NK and other modern department stores with open floor plans.
Back in Arvika, she presented her ideas to city architect Werner Gjerming, who designed a modern brick building with a central atrium and a curved marble staircase in the middle. The latest furniture designs were displayed around the atrium.
The building was also equipped with a lift, air conditioning, a lunch room and large windows. Werner Gjerming was city architect in Arvika for 30 years, between 1938 and 1968, and had a major influence on the city’s development.
Beautiful turn-of-the-century villa
At Magasinsgatan 19 is a beautiful villa from 1902 that showcases Arvika’s craftsmanship. It features a beautiful sun-shaped panel on the frontispiece and wrought ironwork in the roof ridge, gables and balcony railings. In Arvika, we can see many roofs with slate from the nearby slate quarry in Glava, and this is also the case here.
The villa was built by Gottfrid Olsén, son of Paul Olsén, who ran a tobacco factory. At the end of the 19th century, it became popular to live in villas, which was mainly reserved for those who were well off. Beautiful wooden villas with well-landscaped gardens were built on what was then the outskirts of the city.
Minnebergsskolan (Minneberg School)
Minneberg School, a secondary school for 900 students, is located on a hilltop and will open in 2021. It was designed by the architectural firm Brunnberg & Forshed for Arvika Fastighets AB, with Serneke as the main contractor.
The building consists of five structures connected to each other via external walkways. The different structures are divided into home bases for 100 students each. The home bases provide the students with a safe and small-scale environment.
Four of the buildings form an inner courtyard, and wood is a recurring theme, both inside and on the glulam façade. Minneberg School is the winner of Grundstenen 2021 and was nominated as the only Swedish finalist for the EU New European Bauhaus prize.
Trefaldighetskyrkan (The Trinity Church)
The Trinity Church stands white and beautiful on a hill in central Arvika. From the church steps, there is a straight view down Torggatan towards the railway station, which is a central axis in the grid-patterned town. The church was consecrated in 1911, the same year that the market town of Arvika was granted town rights and grew rapidly.
It was designed by Ivar Tengbom and Ernst Torulf in a style mainly inspired by national romanticism, which was very modern at the time. In keeping with the ideals of the style, the building materials were sourced from the local area and the interior was created by local artists and craftspeople. Today, the church is considered one of the most architecturally interesting church buildings in the country from the first half of the 20th century.
The Palladium cinema
The Palladium is a cinema palace in elegant 1920s classicism. The plastered red ochre façade is beautifully composed with tall arched windows and large copper letters spelling out PALLADIUM just below the tin roof. The architect behind it was Wilhelm Eick, who also designed several beautiful 1920s villas in Arvika.
The builder was Carl Isaksson, who, while running the cinema with his family, also had a sheet metal workshop on the site. A combination of culture, craftsmanship and fearless antics that can be said to be typical of Arvika. The cinema was inaugurated in 1925, making it one of Sweden’s oldest cinemas still in operation. Take the opportunity to see a film!
Arvika Konsthantverk (Arvika Arts and Crafts)
There are many beautiful things in the Arvika Arts and Crafts shop! It is also Sweden’s oldest arts and crafts shop in a community that is bursting with creativity. The artist Maja Fjæstad and her colleagues formed an association in 1922, and she was its first chairperson.
Since 1924, the shop, which has become the hub of the association, has been located here at Kyrkogatan 17B. Today, the shop is owned by a new generation of local artisans. Here they sell their creations in glass, ceramics, leather, wrought iron, textiles, wood, silver and sometimes visual art. There is also a gallery with temporary exhibitions.
Östra Esplanaden
Östra Esplanaden is an avenue dating from 1880 that formed the boundary between the old town centre in the west and a new area that extended the city to the east. At that time, esplanades were to be planted in all the country’s cities to form a barrier that prevented city fires from spreading between the wooden houses. At the same time, there was a desire to beautify the city with parks, avenues and plantings, which were considered good for health.
In Östra Esplanaden, chestnut and maple trees grow in two rows, their foliage forming a canopy in the middle. On either side are many beautiful buildings from the decades around the turn of the 20th century, as well as the former Östlind & Almquist piano and organ factory, which is now a residential building.
Arvika Stadspark (Arvika City Park)
The beautiful City Park in Arvika was created in 1913 and much remains from that time. In addition to the winding walking paths and large trees, there is also a bird pond, a fountain, Silverallén and a pergola covered with wild vines that is 82 metres long, one of the longest in Europe.
The park features Christian Eriksson’s sculpture ‘Sommardopp’ (Summer Dip) and Arvid Knöppel’s ‘Hind med kid’ (Hind with Kid), as well as a bust of Per Andersson, founder of Arvikaverk. Although it is over a hundred years old, the park is also modern, as the park management organises a flower programme on a different theme each year. Arvika City Park was named Park of the Year in 2019 and Tourist Destination of the Year in the parks and gardens category in 2015.
Sågudden
Sågudden is an open-air museum on the shore of Kyrkviken, east of Arvika town centre. Here you will find various types of buildings that have been moved here from locations in western Värmland, showcasing older building styles. The largest is Storbondegården, a museum open in the summer with older objects, a cellar with archaeological collections and a church hall for medieval ecclesiastical objects. There is also a Forest Finn smoke hut, a soldier’s cottage, a windmill, a boathouse, a smithy, etc.
The Västra Värmlands Fornminnesförening (Western Värmland Antiquarian Society) has been collecting older cultural objects since 1904 and, with Sågudden, also transitioned to buildings modelled on Skansen. Today, it is a popular destination for excursions, with a playground, herb garden, summer café, various holiday celebrations and events.
The harbour warehouses
On Hamnplan there are two warehouses from the 1850s that are among Arvika’s oldest buildings. Tall and stately, they tell the story of the merchants Mebius and Sandelin. Goods that were to be shipped out or had arrived at the harbour were stored here.
Sandelins warehouse has a white gable facing the water to make it more visible, like a kind of sea mark to indicate the harbour. The possibility of building a harbour was an important reason why the market town was located here when it was founded in 1811.
Arvika is actually ‘Sweden’s innermost port’ – from here, you can travel via Säffle and Lake Vänern to Gothenburg and on to the world’s oceans. The port also houses the Hantverksmagasinet (Crafts Warehouse) and a brick building with clear boat references from 1951.