Exploring Lund and the Ales Stenar

After a busy week of teaching and research (there is no Thanksgiving Break in Sweden), this weekend I got behind the wheel for the very first time in Sweden.  In a very-unSwedish Volkswagen Gulf I headed with my family to the city of Lund in Skane, the southern region of Sweden heavily influenced by its long history as part of Denmark.  The Danish connection is so strong that some parts of Skane fly their own flag--a yellow Swedish cross on a red Danish background.  Skane is Sweden's bread-basket, a region covered with picturesque farms (that look an awful lot like the farms of the American Midwest). It is also a favorite destination of artists looking for picturesque landscapes and the region's wide-open skies.

Our first destination was the city of Lund--Sweden's second oldest city founded in 1020 by Canute the Great who at the time was ruler of the United Kingdom of England and Denmark. Lund is perhaps best known for Lund University, founded in 1666, and the city is sometimes called Sweden's Cambridge. It certainly feels like an ancient college town.

It is also the site of Lund Cathedral consecrated in 1145. It is an absolutely amazing historic building constructed in the Romanesque style, and filled with intricate wood carvings and artwork.

To add to its charm, it has a huge medieval calendar clock that plays music and puts on a parade of the magi twice a day:

In addition to the parade of the magi, the clock has clashing knights whose swords strike once for each hour, a orb that shows the phases of the moon, and aged Chronos pointing with his cane to the current day and month.  It certainly illustrated how the medieval Church used magnificent architecture, art, and technological razzle-dazzle to awe and inspire.

Chronos pointing to the date on the perpetual calendar: November 30.

It also has a fascinating underground crypt containing Lund's oldest Christian alter, as well as the graves of early Lund's nobility and Catholic bishops:

After watching the clock strike noon, we walked from the cathedral to Kulturen, Lund's cultural history museum. Outside the gate stood an impressive collection of rune stones--stones bearing the Viking's runic writings singing the praises of their deceased heroes and chiefs.

Inside its gates, the museum has a collection of historic buildings assembled from all over Skane interpreted by living historians. The day we visited was the Julmarket (a Christmas market), so we enjoyed tasting food and seeing crafts from across Southern Sweden.

My favorite historic building was a 15th century wooden church (complete with a historic tombstones) moved to Lund from a small village. It was a really interesting contrast with the Cathedral, highlighting even further how truly magnificent the experience must have been for rural Swedes visiting the Cathedral at Lund.

After Kulturen, we walked over to the Skissernas Museum--a museum and archive founded in 1941 that collects the sketches and models used to produce public art. The museum had an amazing collection that allows visitors to see how artists developed their ideas and shaped their works before they went on display in public. It is one of the best museums I have ever visited for seeing the artistic process in action.

After exploring Lund, we set off on Sunday morning for the southern coast of Sweden to see Ales Stenar, or Ale's Stones. Ales Stenar is a 1,200 year old stone ship megalith--a little cousin of Stonehenge--constructed of 59 stones weighing as much as 1.8 metric tons each. The bow and stern of the ship are constructed of massive quartzite boulders each of which been hauled over 30 kilometers from their original quarry. Together, the stones form the shape of a huge ship, but they also serve as a natural calendar. The bow and stern are aligned with the summer and winter solstice, and the ship also aligns with the summer and fall equinoxes. Archaeological explorations also revealed a 5,500 year old dolmen, or burial crypt, located underground near the ship's center.  The whole structure is perched on a flat, open field high above the Baltic Coast.

Apparently Sunday mornings in December are a great time to visit Ales Stenar if you want to beat the crowds. Of course, just so long as you don't mind frigid temperatures and biting winds off the Baltic Sea. It was cold, but no so cold as to discourage surfers from riding the waves off the coast while we mounted the hill to the Ales Stenar site.  As we wandered among the ancient stones, and contemplated the history around us, we appreciated the fact that our family was alone with one of the great wonders of the ancient world. At last, the cold and wind finally got to be too much to bear, so we made our way down the steep shoreline and back to our car--a bit giddy with a mixture of joy and hypothermia.

It was a remarkable couple of days discovering centuries of history and art in beautiful southern Sweden.  I'll leave you with a wonderful piece of public art we saw at the Skissernas Museum--which seemed so appropriate on this incredible journey:

 
Farewell until next time!