3. The Library

This is Heidenstam’s favourite room, where you can see his armchair, the radio he listened to a lot and ca 3000 books sorted by their colours. The books with golden backs are placed so that they should reflect the sunshine at sunset.

Some of the red books once belonged to the famous author and playwright August Strindberg. Heidenstam bought them in order to help Strindberg when he was in a financial crisis.

The portrait above the chest of drawers shows us Peter Peters, Heidenstam’s great grandfather, who came from Germany and was knighted von Heidenstam by the king Adolf Fredrik to whom he was a personal physician.

In here you can also see pictures from Heidenstam’s 70^th birthday, which he celebrated with great pomp and circumstance here at Övralid, and his finest gift he received then: the rapier placed on the table near the door. The rapier dates from the late 1600s and has been used in battle by the soldiers of Karl XII. Heidenstam wrote an historical novel about them, “Karolinerna” and the king was almost an idol to him. The bear skin was a gift from the textile artist Selma Giöbel.

The book at the front of the big table was a gift to his third wife, Greta Sjöberg, when she was 16 years old.