A wintertime visit at the site of Varnhem

The Cistercian brothers built a monastery town in Varnhem in 1148 and at the end of 1200 the monastery church was the biggest sacred building in Sweden. During the reformations of the 1500s the monastery was closed down and the church abandoned. One hundred years later, Count Magnus Gabriel de la Gardie paid for a restoration of the church but the monastery was left to decay.

The impressive church is the burial place of long gone eras "celebrities", like the Eric royal family, the founder of Stockholm Birger Jal and of course the church's saviour, Magnus Gabriel de la Gardie and his wife, the Princess Maria Eufrosyne.

The sad traces of human activities were more than obvious during this visit to Varnhem monastery church site. All-over the area, many of the old trees were cut down and the signs of wheels of some monstrous track were apparent on the snow.

The stone cross of a grave that had survived the destruction of time, was torn down by careless and irresponsible humans in a split second.
What time, reformations and raids had not manage to destroy, was shuttered into pieces by the deeds of the  21st century civilised human.

A glimpse of Skövde's History

Sköfde, as Skövde used to be spelled, traces its history back to the medieval age. The town's patron is St. Helen or Elin as know in Swedish.

According to the legend, Elin lived in Våmb outside of Skövde during the 12th century. After a pilgrimage to Jerusalem she was murdered by relatives and buried in Skövde's church.

During the wars with Denmark (16th and 17th century) the small town of Skövde that had no more than few hundreds of inhabitants, was burned down and destroyed.

Only a few of the medieval houses remain, since the fire of 1759 destroyed the entire city except from those houses located in the area know as Helensgården.

Skövde remained a town of small population until the Stockholm - Gothenburg railway was laid, which led to city's industrial and population boost.

Timboholm's treasure was discovered in 1904 and is Sweden's largest gold treasure. It was found at Timboholm just outside Skövde and indicates that people have been living in the area during the stone age, something like 8000 years ago!

Nowadays, Skövde has a population of about 50 000 inhabitants, and its own University.