The Bocksten Man of Varberg Castle

A cup of tea on the terrase with a view… It was a bit chill, but the sunlight was so warm! First morning in Getterön was wonderful…

Flemming and I biked to Varberg, a nice town 3-4 km away. 

Lots of people were around, enjoying the sunny day. 

The church of Varberg on the marketplace was open, and we decided to go in and see it.

It was built in the end of 18th century, as a replacement of an elder church. 

A wedding ceremony was going to take place in the church, and we quickly left. On the Market square, there was … market 🙂 Freshly picked chanterelles of a very good quality were sold here and there. We were tempted to buy, but flying chanterelles to Denmark didn’t seem like a good idea. And our plan for dinner that day was to have it on the rocks of Getterön. 

I’ve always wanted to visit the Varberg Fortress museum – and never had the time. So now we had the time and went there.

In approx. year 1300 a castle was built on the mount Wardberg . A fortress later was constructed around it, with impressive walls and bastions. 

People lived and worked there for many hundreds years. In the 17th century, this fortress was so powerful, nobody dared to attack it. Today, it is a popular destination both for locals and tourists.

In the museum, we could see the sceleton of The Bocksten Man. The man was 25 – 35 years old when he died, and he lived around 1350 – 1370. His well-preserved woolen clothes were also on display. Humic acids discoloured his sceleton, and turned his hair red. 

The Bocksten Man had had poles driven through his body. At that time, it was a way of stopping the deceased from becoming a ghost. Legends tell that people that were killed in that manner often has evil traits – like being cruel, criminals or practitioners of magic. The Bocksten Man was buried face-down, which is also an indication of clear humiliation of a person even in death. 

Another interesting thing in the museum was a wall-long gobelin. I called it “another Bayeux tapestry”, referring to the world-famous tapestry from the 11th century, which I had a chance to see in Bayeux, being there on a flying vacation. The gobelin in Varberg represented scenes from a wedding:

After the museum, Flemming and I did a slow walk around the fortress.

We eventually came down to the Kallbadhuset, the cold bath house. It has long been on my wishlist to visit it, but I decided to do it another time. It is more fun during winter …

The cold bath houses existed in Varberg since 1820’s. The one on photo above was built in 1903, instead of the previous one, destroyed in a storm.

In the evening, Flemming and I went for the sunset dinner on the rocks of Getterön. 

Poke bowls and sushi, fruit and chocolate, and a bottle of Veuve Clicquot. We like this champagne, and bought 3 bottles in Varberg. Not that we were desperate 🙂 but maybe a little greedy :-). We called it “saving time”, so that we don’t have to go to the wine shops again and again in the future.

The Aviator and The Blue Bear didn’t care about champagne, but they loved fresh fruit:

It was so tranquill to sit there is silence, with the world around us bathered in the soft golden hues of the setting sun. 

Immersed in nature, surrounded by beauty, we savoured the luxurious simplicity of champagne at sunset and didn’t talk much.