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| The Gottsunda Trail |
On this map you can see how Linnaeus walked the trail.
Go to the
website of the city of Uppsala to see how you can walk the trail
today.
Map from Linnaean Landscapes
© Copyright: Lantmäteriet, the National Land Survey of Sweden |
Good to know |
The entire distance from the Gläntan to Lurbo Bridge is 7.2
km, which can be divided up thus:
Gläntan to Norby Soldattorp: 1.8 km.
Norby Soldattorp to Hågaån: 2.5 km.
Hågaån to Lurbo bridge: 2.9 km.
Public Transport
For information about buses along the trail, see Upplands
Lokaltrafik and Linnébussen.
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Fjärdingstull |
| During the 1740s, Carl Linnaeus introduced highly popular excursions
into his teaching, which he entitled Herbationes Upsalienses. Herbatio
Gottsundensis is started at Fjärdingstull, which led over Lasseby
hills, through Norby Helvete and on to Lurbo. |
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| Lassebyhills |
| On a level with Eriksberg church, came "the bare Lasseby hills".
This is where "Lasseby" itself was supposed to have been.
The town was known since the Middle Ages and kept its name right into
the 16th century, after which there may have been a change of name.
Lasseby hills were pasturelands with shifting areas of open dry fields
and more damp wooded tracts in between. The students' records mention
such species as bearberry, crowberry, twayblade and chickweed wintergreen.
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Norby Helvete |
| From Lasseby, they proceeded towards Norby and Hågadalen.
On the way there, they would pass "Norbykärr", or Norby
Helvete [Norby Hell] as it was also known. The list of species shows
this must have been a great marsh in the middle of the 18th century,
with butterwort, wild rosemary, marsh tea, sundew and even cloudberry.
By the 19th century, the marsh had been drained and reclaimed and
only in 2003 was it possible to substantiate the location of Norbykärr
as the Ekeby municipal housing area. |
Norby and Gottsunda |
| In Hågadalen's low-lying tracts, the Norby and Gottsunda
meadows broadened out and here, the task was to learn the merits of
the various plants as food for animals. The cultivation of grazing
on natural meadow was an innovation at that time. Perhaps the company
gathered right down by the bend of the stream during the examination.
After that, they went up towards Norby grove. Here, they follow the
road towards Gottsunda, which meandered between hills and headlands.
In the main, herbs with medical properties were sought in this grove.
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| Fäbodarna |
| Diagonally across the long valley, one could now glimpse settlement
and well-tended pastureland. There was Fäbodarna, and outlying
farm are under the Dean of Uppsala. The foundations of dwellings and
cattle sheds are still visible here. Today, the hillsides are richly
covered in broadleaf trees and hazel, but were more open in Linnaeus's
time. |
Gottsundabergen |
| The company continued rambling down under the wooded mountain slope
by "Prediksstolen". They also climbed to the crest of the
hill and found the typical plants which belonged to this changing
environments, including toothwort. Long before Linnaeus, during the
Bronze Age 2,500 years before, these cliffs had served as protection
to the farmers of Hågadalen. The ruins of the fortress are still
clearly visible upon the crest. |
Vårdsätra estate |
| The Gottsunda trail continued through richly foliaged meadows known
as "Flora's Eden" and usually ended at Vårdsätra
estate. Sometimes, they went on to Flottsund. In the estate park on
a peninsular out towards Ekoln, was a densely planted grove which
they visited. Later, Linnaeus's great-grandson, Carl Ridderbielke,
would settle here after selling Hammarby to the Swedish state in 1879.
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