Sweden, walking tour of the town Falköping

Sweden, walking tour of the town Falköping

Welcome! Today we’re taking a walk around the town Falköping We start outside the St Olof church, the oldest parts of this church dates back to the early 12th century. According to the legends, Saint Sigfrid of Sweden was the one to pick to location for the church.

I had actually hoped to start the walk inside the church, which is open for visitors in the daytime. But with the church parking lot filled with cars and a hearse pared right at the entrance, I was worried I’d interrupt something if I entered.

Falköping, and the area surrounding it, often referred to as “Falbygden” is somewhere people have lived for a very long time. This is shown, among other things, by the many graves dating as far back as the stone age found around the area.

We will be walking past two such graves on this walk today, but I also have another video from a field with ancient graves that I will publish later. So make sure to subscribe, if you haven’t already, if you don’t want to miss that one.

When it comes to the earliest written mentions of Falköping by name different sources can’t quite agree. Some claim the specific year 1281 where it is mentioned in a statute for Västra Götaland law. While other sources mention the Icelandic work called “Rimbegla” from the late 12th century as the first mention.

I guess the fact that the mentioning in the statute for the law gives us a very specific year, 1281 while the exact year the Rimbegla was written isn’t as specific, might be the reason the opinions differ on when it was first mentioned.

The square we’re about to arrive at is called “Köttorget” which literally translates to the meat square. Which comes, unsurprisingly, from how the square used to be the primary spot for selling all kinds of meat back in the days.

By the way, I’m about to make a rather bad choice in direction. It’s the downside of researching where to go long ago. Then when you actually decide to visit you think you’ve got it figured out but forget a bunch of places.

If I had followed the road these cars are driving on and then turned right, there’s a road called “Repslagargatan”. On that road there’s some really nice old buildings that we unfortunately miss today. But I guess that’s an excuse to return and make a part 2 of this walk another day.

In that same area there’s also “trätorget” which translates to the wood square, where they used to sell firewood and timber. Now we’re instead heading for the main square of Falköping. Which unfortunately is undergoing renovations right now so it isn’t really showing of it’s best side.

According to a preliminary schedule I found online, the construction of the square is supposed to finish in April. So I guess we were here just a little bit to early. Perhaps a stop at the finished square might be another thing for that future part 2 of this walk.

The fountain with the statue in the middle of the square is called “Malta-Johanna” and it show Venus taking a bath. Anyway, I’m running out of things to talk about, so as usual, I’ll be quiet for a while and return with more comments as we reach other areas.

Here is another time when me researching the city months before I actually come here to walk caused some confusion I remember that I wanted to walk past these houses but I don’t remember why. Searching for info about them now I can not find anything special.

Maybe I just thought they looked nice, a series of small, similar sized wooden houses in the middle of town. This park is called “Plantis” in referens to how it is the park of “Planteringsförbundet” (the Planting Association).

The Planting association was founded in 1870 and in 1884 they bought the land for the park and the park opened in 1885. A caretaker was hired for the park in 1910, not sure how it was managed before that? You might remember that I mentioned earlier about ancient graves in and around Falköping?

This is one of them, called “Kyrkerör”, it is a so called passage grave and is estimated to be about 5000 years old. This rock is called Ballersten and is has 45 cup marks in it. It is believed that the cup marks was carved during bronze age, around 3000 years ago.

The building on our right is Falbygdens Museum ( in case you forgot, Falbygden is the area surrounding Falköping). And the red little building we can see beyond was built in 1910 as a resident for the previously mentioned caretaker of the park. This red building is called “Kavlåsstugan” (the Kavlås Cottage).

The earliest history of this building is unknown, but in 1815 it was used as a school the Kavlås manor in Hörnb After that it was used as a worker housing until 1938. In the 1950s it was in the way of a new railroad and was donated to “Falbygdens Hembygds-och Fornminnesförening”

“Falbygdens Hembygds-och Fornminnesförening” is an organization focused on promoting the local history from the ancient to the present. It was rebuilt here in the park in 1957 and was then used as a museum until 1961

At the same time, from 1957 to 1974, it was the residence of the artist & poet, John “Jönn” Liedholm. Now it’s privately owned and I’m not really sure about it’s current state.

For a while it was owned by “Falbygdens Osteria”, a restaurant with a focus on cheese (“ost” is the Swedish word for cheese) But they sold it a couple of years ago and the person who bought it only owned it for about a year before he put it up for sale in 2022.

I haven’t found anything about what has happened to it after that. This is “Rantens Kvarn” (Rantens Windmill), it was built around 1870. In 1918 it was converted to an electric mill and hade the sails removed it was used as a mill until 1950.

In 1961 the windmill was renovated and had the sails restored. Speaking of Ranten, it is not only the name of the windmill it is also the name of the area we are currently in. It wasn’t originally a part of Falköping but rather it was it’s own place.

It was also in Ranten that the railroad for the area arrived (we will get to the station in a while). Local stories claim that the railroad went to Ranten instead of Falköping since the people of Falköping didn’t like those modern things.

But it seems those stories are only that, stories. The locals were actually upset about the travel distance to the train station. The railroad passing Ranten was finished in 1858 and it wasn’t until 1939 that Ranten became a part of Falköping. This is “Allianskyrkan” (The alliance church?) built in 1901.

Now we’ve arrived at another passage grave that is around 5000 years old. This one is called “Lusthushögen” (the gazebo pile) named after how a gazebo was once built here. This is “Hotell Ranten” (Ranten Hotel), it was originally built in 1865 to offer train travelers a place to eat and rest.

And over there is the train station. And now we’ve reached the end, I hope you’ve enjoyed this tour of Falköping. Thank you for watching!

Today we’re in the town Falköping, talking a walk starting at the church, going past the town square, some old buildings, the park and a windmill before ending the walk outside the train station.

#walking #walkingtour #sweden #falköping #virtualwalk