Övralid
Encyclopedia
Övralid is a manor house
north of Motala
in Östergötland
County, Sweden
.
, writer
, and Nobel Prize laureate Verner von Heidenstam
. Övralid was built in 1925 on the east hillside of lake Vättern
. Originally it had no electricity
. Övralid houses a library, a study, a dining hall, two bed rooms, and three guest rooms. In the kitchen stands one of Sweden's oldest still running refrigerator
s from the 1930s. The interior has been kept the way it was when Heidenstam died in 1940. No one has lived in Övralid after Heidenstam. The building is open for visitors in the summer and the personal belongings of Heidenstam can be seen where he left them in 1940. Heidenstam is buried nearby.
Manor house
A manor house is a country house that historically formed the administrative centre of a manor, the lowest unit of territorial organisation in the feudal system in Europe. The term is applied to country houses that belonged to the gentry and other grand stately homes...
north of Motala
Motala
Motala is a locality and the seat of Motala Municipality, Östergötland County, Sweden with 29,798 inhabitants in 2005. It is the third largest city of Östergötland, following Linköping and Norrköping...
in Östergötland
Östergötland
Östergötland, English exonym: East Gothland, is one of the traditional provinces of Sweden in the south of Sweden. It borders Småland, Västergötland, Närke, Södermanland, and the Baltic Sea. In older English literature, one might also encounter the Latinized version, Ostrogothia...
County, Sweden
Sweden
Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....
.
The building
Övralid was home to poetPoet
A poet is a person who writes poetry. A poet's work can be literal, meaning that his work is derived from a specific event, or metaphorical, meaning that his work can take on many meanings and forms. Poets have existed since antiquity, in nearly all languages, and have produced works that vary...
, writer
Writer
A writer is a person who produces literature, such as novels, short stories, plays, screenplays, poetry, or other literary art. Skilled writers are able to use language to portray ideas and images....
, and Nobel Prize laureate Verner von Heidenstam
Verner von Heidenstam
Carl Gustaf Verner von Heidenstam was a Swedish poet and novelist, a laureate of the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1916. He was a member of the Swedish Academy from 1912...
. Övralid was built in 1925 on the east hillside of lake Vättern
Vättern
Vättern is the second largest lake in Sweden, after Lake Vänern and the sixth largest lake in Europe. It is a long, finger-shaped body of fresh water in south central Sweden to the southeast of Vänern pointing at the tip of Scandinavia....
. Originally it had no electricity
Electricity
Electricity is a general term encompassing a variety of phenomena resulting from the presence and flow of electric charge. These include many easily recognizable phenomena, such as lightning, static electricity, and the flow of electrical current in an electrical wire...
. Övralid houses a library, a study, a dining hall, two bed rooms, and three guest rooms. In the kitchen stands one of Sweden's oldest still running refrigerator
Refrigerator
A refrigerator is a common household appliance that consists of a thermally insulated compartment and a heat pump that transfers heat from the inside of the fridge to its external environment so that the inside of the fridge is cooled to a temperature below the ambient temperature of the room...
s from the 1930s. The interior has been kept the way it was when Heidenstam died in 1940. No one has lived in Övralid after Heidenstam. The building is open for visitors in the summer and the personal belongings of Heidenstam can be seen where he left them in 1940. Heidenstam is buried nearby.