While consolidating all of our photos after our Göteborg trip, we came across some photos from a cool Christmas market that we went to, that didn't make it into our blog at the time (because it was when I was catching up on a huge backlog of posts)
The market was held at an old castle estate near
Sjöbo called Övedskloster.
The market is set up so that the guests arrive at the carpark, park their cars and then catch a horse and wagon into the actual castle and market. Our trip was messed around a little by the fact that Alana got really car sick and had to jump out to throw up just as we were being directed into the carpark. In the end we got a carpark near the entrance and didn't need to take the wagon - we did however need to clean vomit from the backseat and Alana's clothes. We also found that Cameron had only packed a jumper and no jacket and the weather was about 3 degrees and windy. Kris ended up giving him her jumper to wear over the top as she had her warm jacket.
(History nerd details follow - for details about the market if you're not interested in the history, skip to the ===== row):
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The
Övedskloster (Ovid's Monastery) was built about 900 years ago, and founded by the Archbishop Eskil of Lund. The monks that served there came from Premontré in France.
At this time, the area was still owned by Denmark, and when the reformation of Denmark occured in 1536, the Monastery and the farms were confiscated and used as collateral for the King for borrowing from nobility. The monastery buildings were demolished and none remain.
The Danish King Christian IV traded the Monastery, for land at All
ö so he could fortify Kristianstad, to Otto Lindenov in 1614. Otto then sold it to Field Marshal Carl Mauritz Lewenhaupt in 1666. It was passed down in the Lewenhaupt family until Field Marshal Charles Emil (his grandson) led an unsuccessful war against Russia and was made a scapegoat for the defeat. He was beheaded and his property confiscated. He managed to sell the property to his Brother-In-Law, Colonel Hans Ramel before it could be seized (in 1753).
The Ramels demolished the farm buildings and built a 1700s style castle. It was written up as an entailed estate, meaning it could not be sold and would be inherited by the eldest son. It is currently owned by the 10th Ramel, also named Hans Ramel.
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The markets at Övedskloster are held on the 12th and 13th of December. They consisted of a barn filled with arts and crafts, several food stalls, a tractor Tomte procession (see below) and an ice skating rink. The kids had a lot of fun and we picked up a lot of Christmas presents to send back to Australia to family.
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| Christmas at Övedskloster! |
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| Entry into Övedskloster |
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| The side of the barn |
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| The JulTomte Tractor Parade |
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| One of the Jul Tomte Tractor drivers |
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| It was pretty crowded in the halls |
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| Pony rides - I dont think the guy in the bottom left was too happy to be photo-bombing |
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| Panoramic shot from outside the barn - while I was taking this Tomas got yelled at in Swedish as he kicked some stones that sent a rockfall down on a Swedish couple's dog |
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| At the rear of the area there was a paddock with some alpacas |
The countryside on the way to
Övedskloster was beautiful, it was the first time we really got to see the Swedish countryside.
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| On the road to Övedskloster |
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| Forests on the way to Övedskloster |
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| Molehills! - I did consider scraping them all together to see if we could make a mountain. |
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| The trees still had dropped their red leaves from Autumn |
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| It was equally as awesome at night on the way home |
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