The church hill

Johannes Bureus, Sweden’s first Director-General of National Antiquities, visited Gammelstad at Christmas the year 1600. He wrote: “All farmers have their cottages near the church on a site they call the Hill, 2, 3, 4 or 5 to a cottage”

The number of church cottages at the time has been estimated between 200 and 300. We do not know if there were church cottages on the top of the hill. If there were, they were moved at the end of the 17th century, when the first section of the grey house next to the park was built. This is Gammelstad’s oldest inhabited building, a private residence for two families.

In the park facing the marketplace stood the first church belfry. It was demolished in 1852 when the new tower was finished. Einar Larsson’s sculpture, which now stands in the park, is symbolizing Gammelstad’s special features, i.e. the river and the cottages.