Skvallertorget

Spa guests rented rooms in the houses surrounding the square. It became a meeting place for socialising and exchanging the latest news.
Along its western side are the red-painted houses Tvaan and Bikupan. Bikupan is the older of the two and originally belonged to the shipyard on the slope towards the water. It initially had two storeys. A third storey was added in the 1820s to accommodate spa guests. The small porch with fretwork details is a later addition.
Tvaan was built in the 1830s, also to accommodate the growing number of spa guests. Visitors can still stay overnight in this historic building today.

Villa Fjallstugan, on the rocky ledge above Skvallertorget, was built as a gift to the physician Otto Edward Ahlstrom. He had a practice in Uddevalla but also made free house calls to poor residents. If they could not afford medicine, the doctor paid for it.
When Ahlstrom was due to retire in 1878, his friends and patients secretly had Villa Fjallstugan built. At a celebration in the house’s drawing room, the completely unsuspecting doctor was presented with the key. He then spent every summer here for twenty years.

Diaries and letters written by spa guests who stayed around Skvallertorget have been preserved and tell us about life at the resort.
Charlotte Lamberg kept a diary during her stay at Gustafsberg. Follow the link below to read it.

Read the 1824 diary of Charlotte Lamberg, daughter of a town councillor.