We had a quiet day today. Well a quiet day in the sense that we didn’t go anywhere much, but not so quiet in terms of the weather. We chose the jetty at Gustafsberg because we knew the wind was going to blow hard from the west and sure enough, the forecast was completely accurate – it huffed and it puffed though didn’t blow any houses down …..
So we walked round the coast path into Uddevalla instead. The route is a little industrial in places, but still a very nice walk with a couple of nature reserves on the way. The walk also took us past the oldest oak tree in Uddevalla. The tree has a circumference of more than 6 metres and is thought to be over 600 years old – probably dating from sometime in the early 14th century. Given that is 200 years before Uddevalla was founded, that is a pretty impressive record.
In fact the tree has calmly watched quite significant changes in the region. Uddevalla was originally Norwegian, probably dating from 1498 with the more quirky name – Oddevald. It is still odd and has changed nationalities around seven times during its history, thanks to various wars between Norway, Sweden and Denmark. It was finally handed back to Sweden in 1660 as part of the Treaty of Copenhagen and since then has been Uddevalla. The old identity still lives on though in the name of the local football team – IK Oddevold.
The city has been burned to the ground six times, but the oak still survived. The sixth of these fires was in 1806 and when the town was rebuilt, it was laid out in a grid-like structure. Few historic houses remain, and while not stunningly attractive, it is a pleasant town.
The walk also took us past an intriguing sculpture – the Syrian Horse. This is a 5 metre tall iron sculpture of a horse rearing up on its hind legs. It was originally borrowed by the town, but proved so popular with the locals, that a campaign was launched which successfully purchased the sculpture for the town. The sculpture is apparently inspired by the style of clay figurines – “Euphrates Handmade Syrian Horses and Riders“.
Once back in Gustafsberg we had a further look round some of the houses. These included the Villa Carolina (apparently this has remained the same pink colour ever since being built for the Mayor of Uddevalla in the 19th century), the Sewing Box, the Shoemaker’s House and the Villa Klippan. All are in immaculate condition and reinforce the feeling that you are intruding into another era.
