Wednesday 25 July 2012

ABC Wednesday–Borås

I’m making it easy for myself this week… Or am I? The problem with choosing my own town is that I blog about it all the time. So how to make it interesting??

Ah well… at least I have plenty of my own photos this time!

The city of Borås received its privileges in 1621 by King Gustav II Adolf. The reason was to give local pedlars a legal place for vending their merchandise.

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Statue of a pedlar at one end of a shopping street in central town.

After a century the town had grown to have over 2,000 inhabitants.

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Borås circa 1700, from Suecia antiqua et hodierna.

Borås was ravaged by fires four times: in 1681, 1727, 1822 and 1827. The Caroli church is the oldest of Borås's buildings, and has withstood all fires.

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Caroli church

The city arms depicts two sheep-shearing scissors, a tribute to the vast number of smiths in the town in early history.

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Souvenir with the city arms from the Textile Museum

Borås has also been and is still an important textile  industry and mailorder centre. Nowadays the focus has shifted to design and delivery rather than production, though.

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From the Textile Museum

We hold the Swedish record for the number of established mail-order firms.

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Postoffice trucks at the parcel distribution centre

The city is gaining a new reputation as a city with many outdoor sculptures, and this summer we are having our third Sculpture Biennal.

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It was “Walking to Borås”, a 9 m high bronze sculpture by American artist Jim Dine that started it, back in 2008.

In December 2011, Borås had 104 106 inhabitants.
It is the 13th largest city in Sweden.

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The old town house / court house at the town square, built in 1910.

ABC Wednesday – B

13 comments:

  1. you already know how much i love the town you live in and all those statues and art . your buildings are beautiful and you have so much going on all within walking distance and that fascinates me. do you know why the statue of the peddler he has on a coat but no shoes?

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    1. In other images I've seen of the pedlars they are wearing shoes. So my guess is the bare feet may just be the artist's way of drawing attention to the fact that the pedlars used their feet to get around. They walked, and carried their goods in a sack on their back.

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  2. Great post about your town. Perfect for the letter B and a wonderful collection of shots. Carver, ABC Wed. Team

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  3. Sandra is very observant . I certainly didn't notice the absence of shoes on the otherwise apparently well dressed pedlar.

    The souvenir with the city arms is familiar to me of course and is a rather attractive as well as useful constant reminder.

    Is there a significance of Pinocchio to your town?

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    Replies
    1. No, Pinocchio has no connection to this town. Or rather - he DID not have a connection to this town until 2008. Now he has, because of the statue!

      Actually that was one of the debating points before and just after the statue was established here. Weak attempts were made to find a connection. Actually a chief illustrator at Disney in the 1930s came from somewhere around this part of Sweden - and he did work on the production of the Pinocchio movie... However that really had nothing to do with it. The truth is, the money for the statue were donated by a private citizen, stipulating that the artist should be Jim Dine and no one else. And at the time, Jim Dine was working with Pinocchio images, and nothing else. He sees the story of P. as a metaphor for art and a a sort of alchemical process as a wooden doll comes to life.

      Anyway we've got used to him now...

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  4. Love the pinocchio sculpture/statue!

    Set of B's
    Rose, ABC Wednesday Team

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  5. Funnily enough, the statue wearing a coat but no shoes was what I first noticed when looking at the pictures, too.
    Boras looks a nice, tidy place to live, and I am sure there is a lot more for you to tell us about it and no problem to keep it interesting :-)

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  6. What a wonderful post. Worthy of a 'Visit Borås' tourisdt site.

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  7. Lovely photos and so interesting to learn about a town that's new to me.

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  8. That court house looks lovely. Would love to have my court sessions there! :D

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  9. love the old time clock, too. all quite lovely.
    ROG, ABC Wednesday team

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  10. What a delightful place!

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  11. Love the statues (especially Pinnochio) and the church.

    Leslie
    abcw team

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