What I love most about Värmland’s buildings is that they hold so many stories! If you know them, the visit becomes so much more filled with soul and excitement. And Värmlanders love a good story – so it’s not always easy to know what’s true or not!
But is there a specific Värmland architecture? Rather, I think there are several! In the north, we have the magical Forest Finnish heritage with smokehouses; in the east, we enter Bergslagen with its smelters; around Lake Vänern, we have the archipelago with lighthouses and fishing cottages; in the western borderlands, we see Norwegian influences in the wooden carvings; in the Arvika area, we have fantastic slate roofs, and everywhere we can see brightly painted manors and the tall red Värmland farms.
Here are some of my absolute favorites!
Borgvik Manor
A few years ago, the magnificent Borgvik Manor was up for sale, after being owned by Billerud for many years. It was bought by a family who moved from a three-room apartment in Hisingen and now rent out the atmospheric wing for overnight stays. Borgvik Manor is a fantastic building from the 18th century in Carolinian style with a high manor roof that actually only has the function of being stately, as it is just a giant attic.
The twelve rooms on the ground floor house layers of time from a 300-year history. Borgvik is one of Värmland’s most genuine industrial environments with many fine buildings preserved. Today, it is a vibrant center for art and culture with, for example, an art gallery and restaurant both in the barn at Borgvik farm and in the Sliperiet.
City Konditoriet in Arvika
Arvika is a café town where most Arvika residents have their own favorite café. Some choose City Konditoriet, which has the period-typical interior preserved 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 1938-1968.
“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 house is overall a period-typical gem from the 1940s, well worth hurrying into on a rainy day for a cup of coffee and a pastry.
Värmlands Museum
You can’t write an architecture guide about Värmland without mentioning Värmlands Museum in Karlstad. It is a true gem designed in 1929 by Cyrillus Johansson, who was one of the most noted architects of the time. The building has so much beauty to offer both outside and inside, so don’t forget to go in to explore the atmospheric courtyard or the new library, which is designed in Cyrillus’ spirit.
Even though both National Romanticism and 1920s Classicism are present, traditional Chinese architecture is also a clear source of inspiration, as seen in the curved roof with a Värmland eagle in each corner, the fantastic rich color schemes, and the intricate windows that create an axis through the otherwise massive building.
The newer part from 1998, designed by Carl Nyrén, and the round restaurant pavilion “Lyktan” from 2019 are also quality architecture worth experiencing.
Sculpture and the main building of Rottneros Park in Sunne.
The park in Rottneros with Carl Eldh’s parterre in the background.
King’s Pavilion. The sculpture in the foreground is by Per Hasselberg.
Rottneros Park
When you enter Rottneros Park for the first time, you are a bit surprised. It is an incredibly beautiful – and by Värmland standards large – park that, in addition to beautiful greenery, also offers architecture and about a hundred sculptures and reliefs by famous sculptors such as Carl Eldh, Gustav Vigeland, Christian Eriksson, Carl Milles, and Astrid Bergman-Taube.
There are also copies of the mighty Nike of Samothrace and Diana of Anet. It is an adventure to wander the park where you are seduced by both grand views and small intimate rooms, sculptures, and buildings that are intertwined. You will most certainly find your favorite spot and settle down there to “enjoy-gaze” for a while.
The older Rottneros Manor was the model for Ekeby in Selma Lagerlöf’s “The Saga of Gösta Berling.” When it unfortunately burned down, a new one was built in 1932 with the ambition to even more stage the romantic Ekeby from the saga, in a classicist style. After that came the park, which was developed until the late 1950s. The Värmland storytelling in the park is enhanced by the large storytelling barn next door, where Västanå Teater is housed.
von Echstedt Manor
If there is any place where you can really feel the wings of history, it is at von Echstedt Manor. The main building was completed in 1764, and in recent years the ambition has been to recreate a pure 18th-century environment in the interior. Even though the symmetrical manor environment with the apple orchard and the building’s Carolinian style is beautiful in every way, it is when you step inside that the real wow factor sets in.
Here you will find a Rococo interior with many beautiful wall paintings, often with humorous motifs – especially in the outhouse where the gentry look back from a wall painting, also sitting on the outhouse. The manor was purchased in 1939 by Värmlands Museum, which keeps it open for visitors during the summer months.
Sockerslottet today.
Sockerslottet when it was newly built in 1900.
Sockerslottet in Karlstad
When Karlstad residents get to choose, it is “Sockerslottet” that is repeatedly voted as both Karlstad’s and Värmland’s most beautiful building. The white-plastered residential building by the Klarälven river in the heart of Karlstad was built in 1899 by Jonas Andersson, who was one of Värmland’s largest landowners at the time.
The building was intended for his daughter Ida, who was to marry a distinguished lecturer. However, the husband died before the construction was completed, and Ida never moved in. The architect was Carl Österman, who had studied in Europe and designed buildings in, among other places, Stockholm and Kristinehamn.
When the building was newly constructed, it stood almost alone in the Klara district, which was still just outside the city, so the dazzling white “castle” must have been a fantastic sight. The fact that the apartments had some of Karlstad’s first bathrooms also contributed to the luxury.
The house has always been privately owned and houses 14 rental apartments and an office, but if you can sneak a peek through the gate, you get a glimpse of a magnificent entrance hall with paintings and columns.
Skavnäset Bell Tower
Värmland has many beautiful churches in fantastic locations, often on a promontory by a sparkling lake. But I would like to highlight a slightly different ecclesiastical environment, in a place with mining history and protected natural environment, namely Skavnäset in Högbergsfältet in Persberg outside Filipstad. First came the cemetery in 1852, then the bell tower in 1929, and finally Skavnäset Chapel in the 1940s, which is a small chapel with a tent-like shape meant to resemble a mine headframe.
The bell tower stands very beautifully at the top of a hill filled with waving grass and scabious flowers, with a view over Lake Yngen. The bell tower was erected by Persberg mining company and in the area around there are ruins from the operation as well as about 15 mines with impressive depths. Don’t miss the enchanting Tilas Stoll, a horizontal mine passage that you can crawl into if you dare. Iron ore was mined here from the Middle Ages until 1906.
The special soil has also made it so that orchids and beautiful ferns grow here, so the area is protected as a nature reserve. A place with many ingredients, perfect for an exciting outing.
Inside the Old Power Station.
The Old Power Station was completed in 1906.
The Old Power Station
If you are looking for a raw industrial environment with eleven meters high ceilings filled with art experiences – then you should head to the Old Power Station in Deje. It is a tall and stately building in robust brick and plaster in an Art Nouveau-like style, standing as a backdrop to a garden with a café by the rushing Klarälven river. The power station was built in two stages in 1906 and 1913. Three of the original generators and turbine regulators remain in the machine hall.
However, in 1992, the last machine was shut down, and the building was planned to be demolished. But local forces protested, and Ullerud’s Theater Actors began using the cool building. Since 2013, it has functioned as a unique art gallery, with a café, shop, and creative meeting place.
Palladium
Palladium is probably one of the most beautiful movie theaters we have in a Swedish small town. The façade, plastered in red ochre, is beautifully composed with the high arched windows and the large copper letters boasting PALLADIUM just below the metal roof. It is a very fine example of the Nordic 1920s Classicism, sometimes called Swedish Grace.
The cinema was inaugurated in 1925, making it one of Sweden’s oldest cinemas still in operation. Here you can watch the latest movies or have lunch at the attached restaurant Regi. The German-born architect Wilhelm Eick designed several beautiful 1920s villas in Arvika, but he is also behind the designs for the Bofors Hotel and headquarters in Karlskoga, as well as hospital buildings in Torsby and Årjäng.
The builder was tinsmith Carl Isaksson, who, while running the cinema with his family, also had his tinsmith shop on the same plot. A combination of culture, craftsmanship, and daring ventures that can be said to be typical of Arvika.
Säffle Water Tower
The old water tower is perhaps Säffle’s most prominent landmark. It is beautifully located on a hill right by the prehistoric mound Trätäljakullen, near the canal area. The water tower was completed in 1914 and resembles a stately castle tower in its National Romantic style. In red brick, of course, like so much else in Säffle. The water tower was designed by Ivar Tengbom and Gerdt Stendahl.
In the early 1940s, however, the town had grown so much that the water cistern was no longer sufficient. Another famous architect, Cyrillus Johansson (who, among other things, designed Värmlands Museum), was then commissioned to expand the cistern at the top. He also provided the tower with a spire with a weathervane in the form of a Värmland eagle.
In 1958, the tower once again became too small for the rapidly growing Säffle, so the tower was abandoned. It stood empty for several decades until Säffle municipality renovated it (including removing several tons of bird droppings from the pigeons that had settled in the tower). Since 2016, the tower has functioned fantastically as a well-visited art gallery with space for music, poetry, creativity, and contemporary art, often site-specific for the water tower.
Värmlands Säby
Värmlands Säby, two miles south of Kristinehamn, is a unique manor complex from the 1770s for Värmland. But it has older origins than that, as the estate was mentioned as early as 1216. It is one of Värmland’s only three high-status stone complexes, as wood has been the most common building material in the forested landscape.
In many ways, it resembles more the noble estates in eastern Sweden. The beautiful main building has French-inspired Rococo architecture, which, together with wing buildings and various outbuildings, creates a complete manor environment.
In the park around the manor, there is also a labyrinth! The manor is private, but the park is open to the public during the summer months, when guided tours can also be booked. Events such as parties and weddings, hunting and fishing, and accommodation rentals are also held here. Not far away is a nature reserve with large beautiful oaks.
Oppstuhage
Outside Arvika lies the artist’s home Oppstuhage and the Rackstad Museum, which is well worth a visit. After the sculptor Christian Eriksson returned from France in 189 4, he began designing a home that he and his brothers built right next to their childhood home, Haget. The building included both a residence and a studio and was named Oppstuhage. Like other National Romantic artist homes from this time, the architecture has a great awareness and aesthetic sense in both detail solutions and materials and color schemes.
However, as early as 1898, Christian moved with his French wife Jeanne de Tramcourt to Stockholm. They then rented out Oppstuhage to a series of Swedish artists who sought out of the big city for beautiful landscape motifs. The first were Maja and Gustaf Fjæstad, who became the core of what later became known as the Rackstad Colony. Already in 1951, Oppstuhage became a memorial estate, and in 1993 the Rackstad Museum was inaugurated in the renovated and expanded childhood home, Haget.
Östervik Chapel.
Östervik Chapel in winter.
Östervik Chapel
The fascinating Östervik Chapel is located a bit west of Kristinehamn by a bay of Lake Vänern. The chapel was built in 1872 by Countess Ida and Count Rudolf Adlersparre who lived at Gustavsvik Manor nearby. Here, in addition to a church hall, there is a classroom on the upper floor as well as a priest’s and teacher’s residence. The country’s first school lunchroom was set up in the basement.
The building was designed by engineer Julius Frosell, who is best known for being behind Oscar II’s Sofiero outside Helsingborg. The chapel has a medieval-inspired neo-Gothic style with many angles and corners, towers, and a beautiful slate roof.
Between 1922-1963, the chapel was owned by the sculptor and all-round artist Erik Rafael-Rådberg. He lived in the chapel building and used the dairy next door as a studio, which now houses a museum about the sculptor. There are stories about how Erik slept in a coffin up in a loft that he climbed to on a rope, but as I said, Värmlanders don’t miss an opportunity for a good story…
Today, Östervik Chapel is run by a non-profit association that provides guided tours during the summer months and rents out the chapel for concerts and weddings. The area around is open all year round – especially the spring anemone slopes are beautiful!