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Farms of Hälsingland, Hälsingland countryside

Property names are listed in the language in which they have been submitted by the State Party.

Sweden (Europe and North America)

Date of Submission: 12/12/2005
Criteria:
Category: Cultural
Submission prepared by:
National Heritage BoardStockholmInger LiliequistDirector-General
Coordinates:
Sweden, Gävleborg County, Hälsingland province60° 59’— 62° 19’ N 32° — 35° 20’ WThe nominated area is distributed over an area running 120 km east-west and 80 km north-south.
Ref.: 2084

Description

The farmhouses of Hälsingland represent a unique expression of farm architecture springing from the ancient right of farmers to own forest and land and more than a thousand years of agriculture. A relatively limited area of fertile valleys within a forested landscape in northern Sweden contains around two thousand timber farms, many of them substantial constructions with two or three dwelling-houses with attached barns and other outbuildings.

Known with some justifi cation as “wooden castles”, these are magnifi cent building complexes from the 18th and 19th centuries: timbered two or threestorey buildings with up to nine or eleven window axles and carved multicoloured porches based on the design of Classical temples. The interiors consist of richly decorated rooms with friezes of Bible stories or typically Gustavian Rococo walls with natural landscapes, fl owers, fruit baskets and birds. Each region had its decorative painters and carpenters each with their own specialities. This forms a remarkable collection of farms in the Gustavian style (le style gustavien), with Nordic/neoclassical proportions in its wood, architecture, symmetry, tranquillity and dignity. The grand manor house style has clearly provided inspiration, but here, the paintings are given unique expression with strong decorative ambitions in which the panorama wallpapers or elegant textile decorations of the early 19th century are imitated and varied with painting or printed wallpapers. The farms often have two – sometimes three — dwelling houses, one of which was often linked to the outbuildings to form a large complex. An entire house, or fl oor of a house, was reserved for special occasions and used only for storage at other times. These houses or rooms have been very little used and are often in their original condition, thus preserving intact the authentic building traditions of their era.

The farm environment also contains a number of outbuildings designed to meet the needs of the farm. Historical traditions are clearly visible in Järvsö and Ljusdal, with their ancient yard structures, gates and grain stores, some of which were built as early as the 14th and 15th centuries. In the Voxna river valley, the outbuildings were often linked to the dwelling houses to form gigantic architectural formations.

Nowhere in the Nordic region are such magnifi cent farms preserved in such numbers. Nor has the landscape changed signifi cantly since the golden era of the early 19th century. Buildings and agricultural land retain their original appearance. A number of areas have been selected to represent the various types of big farm. All enjoy statutory protection in Sweden as sites of national interest. One farm is a cultural reserve, and several are heritage-listed buildings. This intact agricultural and architectural environment, with its medieval roots and its construction dating mainly from the 18th and early 19th centuries, is unique in Europe, as is the size of its timbered farmhouses. The Hälsingland farms are a hymn to freedom and democracy, a reminder of what can be achieved by industrious people living securely off their own land.