Västerås Mängd (Västerås Variety)

Part of the school

The second day we spent outside of Stockholm was in Västerås. Although we had to work most of the day, we did get to spend some time wandering the streets and getting a quick look at this little city. It does have an interesting history and at least one place I’d like to return to see. There was also a very nice restaurant in which we glimpsed a popular opera star.








There is a long history of habitation in the Västerås area. Sometime around 500 AD a burial mound was built at Anundshög (just outside of Västerås); it’s about 75 yards wide and nearly 10 yards tall. These

Left to Right: Secondary School, Bishop Rudbeckius

barrows are reputed to hold the bodies of warriors in the form of burnt bones and ashes, since Viking warriors were to be burned, along with their weapons, armor, and other possessions. Västerås, itself, was established before 1000 AD and was the second largest city in Sweden. It only took 100 years for the town to become the seat of the catholic bishop. However, this hold on the area by the church was short-lived. By the end of the 13^th century King Gustav I of Sweden had converted the country to a Protestant state. As the country progressed, so did the value of education. Bishop Johannes Rudbeckius (1581–1646) served at Västerås from 1619 until his death, and was the personal chaplain to King Gustavus ‘the Great’. One of his accomplishments was founding what is now the oldest secondary school in Sweden, Rudbeckianska gymnasiet; it was built in in 1623. The Bishop also introduced a rudimentary sort of required schooling for all children in his diocese. Nine years after the gymnasiet was established, he founded the first school for girls in Sweden, Rudbeckii flickskola. Not surprisingly, some of his superiors were not particularly happy about these, and other, reforms; however, they were slowly introduced to the entire country. The family of Bishop Rudbeckius also added to the history of Sweden. His son, Olaus Rudbeckius, Sr., became the most important Swedish scientist of the 17th century and his granddaughter, Wendela Rudbeck, married Peter Olai Nobelius, one of Alfred Nobel’s ancestors.

One of Bishop Rudbeckius’s more notorious pronouncements was that the Dalecarlian horse was ‘the Devil's plaything’. In actuality the

Dala horse

Dalecarlian or Dala horse is a carved, painted wooden statue of a horse from the Swedish province of Dalarna (Dalecarlia). It was originally a toy, but has become the modern symbol of Sweden. The earliest references to the sale of wooden horses are from 1623 and seem to have originated in Bergkarlås near the ‘horse’ villages of Nusnäs, Risa, and Vattnäs. These villages were also involved in furniture and clock-making so it’s likely that the leftover scraps of wood were used for the Dala horses. In the early days there were many horse whittlers but few horse painters. Painting of the horses began, as did the whittling, as an off-shoot of furniture making. However the World's Expo in Paris 1937 and World's Fair in New York 1939 pushed Dala horses into mass production, making the transition from a homemade toy to a national symbol.

What we ate:

 

Four carrots

Brasserie Stadsparken (Stora Gatan 35, 722 12 Västerås, Sweden, +46 21 448 50 80) is a lovely restaurant with two levels. We got to eat

Top: Logo
Bottom: Salad

upstairs, which was nice since we could see outside on a very pretty day. I had a very good salad that included cooked beets, pear, pine nuts, and two wonderful pieces of deep-fried cheese. It was very tasty, especially with the cranberry vinaigrette. Included with this lunch was a salad bar with potato salad, slaw, and lots of greens. Service was good, and fairly quick. I would be delighted to go back to this restaurant. For information about my rating system, see Reading the Reviews.

Top L to R: Bicycle statues, City art
Bottom L to R: River Svartån, Duck on ice

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