The flat we are staying in is surrounded by buildings with plaques. There are some red houses in the next block (Carl Larsson and his wife lived in one for a bit) which look delightfully like wormholes into the past among the almost endless buildings full of flats. These strange glimpses into a very different Söder are reminders that life was very different when the buildings were made of wood.
The photo above is one of the buildings in the Åsöberget kulturreservat, an area you can walk around admiring. It avoided many of the fires that have ravaged various bits of the island in the past. Not surprising, really, when you consider tar used to be made here.
But it’s not just old wooden buildings that get the plaque treatment. A lot of the buildings of flats are notable for something.
Take, for instance, Bondegatan 74. It was built in 1914 by the city of Stockholm using a grant from the Danelii Stiftelse (Foundation). The foundation was created in order to, among other things, provide accommodation for poor and abandoned women and their families.
The City of Stockholm liked this idea very much, so they built a block of flats for them and had the name of the foundation carved above the door.
The Danelii Stiftelse was set up in honour of Brother August Danelii (1833-1908) a very wealthy Stockholmer. He grew his wealth by exporting ice-packed salmon to Europe, making land deals and by founding a factory for the mechanical manufacture of fishing nets called Svenska Fiskredskapsaktiebolaget – I think that’s the name of the factory rather than the nets. When August died, he left over 8.5 million kroner, a lot of which went to the founding of the foundation.
Bondegatan 74 bears his name but it isn’t the only Stockholm building to do so. There is Daneliuska house at Stureplan in Stockholm as well. Unlike the local block of flats, the place at Stureplan has an impressive tower.
Part of the Danelii Donationsfond also went to the construction of the Orpheus Group sculpture by Carl Milles, which stands in front of the concert hall in central Stockholm.
Incidentally, Milles also made the big statue of Gustaf Vasa in the Nordiska Museet.
But, back to the block of flats near us…one notable person who lived at Bondegatan 74 was the author Per Anders Fogelström. As a child, he lived in the building with his mother and sister after his father abandoned them and immigrated to the US.
Fogelström wrote over 40 novels and spent his entire life in Stockholm. As well as a writer, he was also quite political and a notable pacifist. His father, on the other hand, was clearly a right arsehole.
I haven’t been able to find any other famous people who lived in the block of flats though, in my mind, abandoned women who managed to work and bring up a family should be famous. The husbands who abandoned them however, should be forgotten.
Okay, I realise that not all of the women were abandoned. Some could have been widowed, others the victims of sexual abuse. They have their own stories of hardship and bravery. And good old Brother August Danelii helped them all. Or, at least, the City of Stockholm helped them on his behalf.
It rained for most of today so we decided to have a day off. Also, Mirinda had a few video calls to make. Obviously, we went out for meals, including dinner, which was had at Dionysos, a Greek restaurant not far from the flat.
Which now takes our international cuisine tally to six: Spanish, Peruvian, French, Italian, Thai and Greek.
