My Town: Industrial Architecture

 

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The river that flows through my town is lined with many old industrial buildings; most of them nowadays converted to serve other purposes. On Saturday (when out walking without any special goal in mind) I passed one such complex that I've probably walked past at least a thousand times before, and it suddenly it occurred to me to walk in among the buildings to explore a bit more. 

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 Nowadays these buildings house a lot of different businesses, but as it was Saturday, the whole place was pretty much empty - which left me free to take as many photos as I liked, without anyone wondering why...

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▲ Fire escape staircases and their shadows such as these always fascinate me. ▼

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 I also love how much work was put into the architecture of factory buildings in the past... Lots of little details, like decorations around windows and doorways etc.

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▲ I found that I was able to walk all the way down to the river and look over to the path on the side where I usually walk. (There's another old industrial building there as well, which is also nowadays home to several minor businesses.)

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▲ Other (and uglier) old factories have been torn down and replaced by modern apartment buildings (condominiums).

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▲ Finding one's way in Borås can be quite tricky, and not least for pedestrians, as besides the river there is also a railway and motorway to take into account, none of which can be passed just anywhere. On this occasion, I had to return to the street I came from and walk through an underpass below the motorway, to get to the other side of that. 

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▲ On the other side of the river, there is nowadays a special underpass for pedestrians, where you walk on a wooden bridge just by the water. Walking under there (as I often do when walking into town and back), I'm often fascinated by the geometrical patterns formed by light, shadows, and reflections.  ▼

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▲ Looking back across the river to where I stood to take photos 9 and 10. ▼

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(Photos 12, 13 and 16 were taken earlier in March - a note mostly as reminder for myself.)

December 21 - Saturday

From Malmö Old Town: A market stall selling clogs, in front of an old half-timbered building. Half-timbered houses were/are common in Skåne (the southernmost province of Sweden); and clogs belong in their traditions as well.

December 12 - Thursday

Museum park 'Kulturen' in Lund, Skåne, Sweden

Not Far To Go, Anywhere In Hjo

Square, beach walk, park, tourist office… Everything seemed to be just a short walk away in Hjo.

Ice cream café by the river

The sign on the little wooden cottage says ”soap factory”. Checking things up on the internet now, I see that in spite of the “olde” look, this seems to be a contemporary local business (in an old building) – producing and selling their own ecological soap, and related products.

The square

Hjo Church (see separate post from last Sunday)

Randomly wandering the streets on our way back to the hotel, we happened to also come across an enclosed “mystery” estate. We never quite got a grip of whether it was public or private. Either way – a charming environment for whoever it may be who is so lucky as to live there.

Saying goodbye to Hjo, and driving on south…

We made five more stops on that last day of our trip, on our way back home. Each of those stops involved a church; and each one interesting in its own right. (I’m pretty sure I’ve never visited so many churches on one and the same Sunday before!) … I’m thinking of saving those for “Inspired Sundays” to come (one church  per weekend); and get back to posting some other things in between.

This weekend, I’m linking to:

Shadow Shot Sunday 2 

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.