Hjo – A Walk in the Park

From Karlsborg (previous post), we drove on to Hjo, where we stayed the night in a hotel overlooking a park with charming old wooden houses, the beach and the lake. Undoubtedly my winner of the prize for “best hotel room view” (out of three) on this trip.

The view from my room. Looking left, the two houses above.
Looking right, the green house below, with lake view beyond.

Hotel Bellevue itself – keeping a low and modern profile…

In spite of a population of less than 10000 people, Hjo is another of those Swedish towns that for historical reasons is still referred to as a city (stad). Having received its city charter as early as in 1413, it celebrated its 600th anniversary a few years ago. For an old wooden town, Hjo has been relatively spared from fires, and the city structure is still almost exactly the same as in medieval times. The name “Hjo” (also the name of the river flowing through the town) is supposed to derive from a word meaning “muddy”. In 1876, a health spa resort was also founded here, including both drinking mineral water and having mud-baths. The park along the lake and the wooden houses were part of the spa resort.

When we arrived in Hjo (Saturday evening, July 29), it had stopped raining. There was still quite a chilly wind blowing, but after having got ourselves installed in our rooms, we went for a little walk in the park among the old houses to stretch our legs, and have a look at the surroundings.  We did not have to go very far, as the park was right outside the hotel.

 

The old wooden buildings belongong to the old spa resort have women’s names that were popular in the late 19th century, and perhaps also with a certain nationalistic romantic ring to them (typical of that era, too). I didn’t spot all the names, but two that I caught on camera are “Svea” (meaning “Swedish”) and “Eira” (looking it up now, I find it refers  to an old Norse goddess “Eir”, to do with healing).

 

Lovely place for a picnic – in the right weather…

Zooming in the view towards the harbour…

…. and the beach with charming old wooden bathing huts.