The Grand Bathhouse

Following royal visits in the early 19th century, Gustafsberg became extremely popular as a seaside resort. The Grand Bathhouse was designed by architect Carl Christoffer Gjörwell and built on pillars extending into the water. In 1872-1873, it was enlarged with cold-water baths, a new boiler room and the tall chimney. Varmbadhuset became a hostel in 1984.

Well into the 1940s, the showers were very primitive. When the bath attendants blew a whistle, young boys in the attic released hot water into pipes leading to the showers. Seaweed baths were popular. Early each summer morning, a man rowed out to collect seaweed. The bath attendants waited with wooden boxes along the quay. The seaweed was then cleared of shells and washed in hot water until it became smooth and soft.

Gustafsberg has welcomed many famous visitors. In mid-July 1815, the most celebrated salon hostess of the period, Malla Silfverstolpe, travelled to Gustafsberg. Her health was so poor that she had to travel by boat rather than take the hilly country road.

Read more about Malla Silfverstolpe’s visit to Gustafsberg

In mid-July 1815, 33-year-old Magdalene “Malla” Montgomery, married Silfverstolpe and a major cultural figure and salon hostess of her time, travelled to Gustafsberg with her husband David Gudmund. The couple stayed in Uddevalla but visited Gustafsberg every day.

Malla kept a diary during the journey, later incorporated into her memoirs: “Malla’s bodily and spiritual suffering did not permit her truly to enjoy any pleasure. She prayed to God to let her die, to spare her from dragging out an inactive life, a burden to herself and others.”

Despite longing for death, Malla followed the instructions of the spa physician Marin.
He found her in such poor condition that she should not take the steep country road via Kapellebacken from her lodgings in Uddevalla to the baths at Gustafsberg, but instead had to travel by boat each day. Her medical history reads: “Every morning and forenoon she was tormented by cramps in the stomach and chest. She could consume nothing, and hunger increased the pain.”

The doctor prescribed a diet: for breakfast, a raw egg yolk mixed with sugar in a sweet soft drink, accompanied by crispbread. No hot food. The water treatment consisted of a shower every morning, first lukewarm and then cold, over the chest and stomach, followed by a lukewarm bath in the afternoon. The cramps disappeared after the very first shower. They returned the next morning but gradually weakened, and after eight days were markedly reduced before eventually ceasing altogether. Malla could scarcely believe such relief was possible and hardly dared trust it. She lived to the age of 78.