| Kullen - Arild - Mölle
| | Kullen is the name of the mountain, which lies on the Kulla peninsula in northwestern Scania. The tipof Kullen bounds the Sound from the Kattegat.
The area around Kullen, the Kullabygden, became a popular outing for the tourists of the 19th century and the small fishing villages Arild and Mølle were turned into tourist spots.
The Kullabygden is often named ”The Scanian Riviera". |
Kullen-Arild and Mølle
The beautiful and dramatic landscape on the lengthy Kulla Mountain (Kullaberg)in Scania , was, as early as the 19th century, a popular recreational area for summer guests from both sides of the Sound.
The painters were the first to feel attracted to the romantic nature, but quickly the men of letters followed, and later on the area became a popular recreational area for the more wealthy part of the population. The old fishing villages, Arild and Mølle, in the vicinity of the western and eastern area became, with their picturesque small houses and their proximity to the water, a popular recreational area.
Kullen
The Kulla mountain (Kullaberg) is only 187 metres high, but the fact that it rises directly up from the sea makes the terrain formation dramatic. The mountain itself is only 16 kilometres long and at most places only 2 kilometres wide. At the extreme end the mountain ends with a steep slope.
The steep slops of Kullen towards the dangerous sea on both sides and the many caves, have, from time immemorial, naturally created the providede the breeding ground for countless legends and myths.
Kullen by the Sea | 
The Silver Cave from the Outside | 
A Cave with a Wiew | 
The Silver Cave |
Palnatoke´s Skiing and the Kullen Man
During Romanticism the interesest for the old Nordic legends awoke. Some of them are linked to Kullaberg. As early as 1809 Adam Oehlenschläger wrote the tragedy ”Palnatoke” and thus gave life to Saxo´s story of the old Danish legendary figure. Palnatoke had, to prove her prowess in skiing to Harald Bluetooth, taken a downhill race down Kullen´s slopes. (An achievement many Danes in a somewhat smaller scale try to imitate today by doing risky mountain climbs).
In his book “Valdemar Sejr” Bernhard Severin Ingemann told of "Kullamannen", (The Kulla Man), who told the future of the Valdemar Sejr´s sons.
The Kullen man was part nature being and part an authentic historic person in Kullen. According to tradition it is supposedly a knight by the name of Thord Knutsson Bonde.
Palnatoke´s Slope |
The Roamntic Names of the Kulla Mountain
The national and nature romantic interest is evident in the names of the rock formations and caves on Kullaberg. They were named in the latter part of the 19th century. For example Kullamannens grav (the Kulla Man´s Grave), Valdemarsgrotten (The Valdemar Cave) and Palnatokes skrænt (Palnatoke´s Slope), not to mention the beautiful-sounding names: Kaprifoliegrottan, Paradiset, Josefinelust, and Silvergrotten. Josefinelust is named after Oskar I:s wife Josefin, who visited the place.
Josefinelust | 
The Josefinelust Cave |
Kullen´s Old Lighthouse
The outermost part of Kullaberg borders the Sound from Kattegat, but also the land from the sea in a very marked way. For centuries the dramatic landscape has fascinated man and made it a popular resort. But the promontory, which juts out into the sea, has always been a danger for ships. This is why they early on decided to warn the ships with a lighthouse. In 1561 they laid out a lighthouse place ordered by Frederik II. It was improved two years later with a brick tower.
The lighthouse keeper in charge was Tycho Brahe, who later on fell from favour with Christian 4. because he was accused of having neglected his assignment.
The earliest picture known of the lighthouse is drawn by the Dutchman, Simon Frisius in 1615, when he sailed between Holland and Russia. In the next centuries the lighthouse has been rebuilt several times.
Kullen´s Lighthouse |
Kullen´s Present Lighthouse – an Idea from the 19th Century.
Kullen´s present lighthouse is only 15 metres high, but as a shining crown on the top of the majestic rock it is still a magnificent sight. The light source is 78,5 metres above the sea and thus one of the highest situated in Sweden.
In 1898 the authorities accepted the designs for the present lighthouse. The architect was Magnus Dahlander from Dalarne. They started building in 1899, and the new lighthouse opened in the year 1900. At this time they also delivered the lens instrument, which still rotates in the lighthouse.
The lenses, which increased the light source were the result of research by the French physicist and engineer August Frensel (1788-1827). He had studied how light is refracted through different lenses and established here that if you place the light source in focus in a burning-glass, the beams are refracted, so they radiate from the lens in parallel. The discovery was made as early as 1822. They were now able to construct lenses, which reinforced the light much more efficently than the old paraboloidal reflectors.
The first Frensel lens was put in the famous French lighthouse Cordouan on the Frech west coast in1823. But t wasn´t until the end of the century that the Paris company Barbier & Barnard could deliver the new construction to the lighthouse in Kullen.
The lens instrument was at the time the largest in Sweden with its three large lenses. It was rotated with clockwork and a weight, which was used until 1937.
The light source itself was electrified in 1907 with a 1000 watts bulb, which gave and still gives the strongest flash in Scandinavia every 5th second.
Kullens Lighthouse | 
Kullen´s Lighthouse – A Place with a View | 
The Lenses | 
The Light Source | 
The Lighthouse´s Old Weight |
Arild, Early Artist Community
On Kullaberg´s east side we find the old fishing village Arild with a view of Skälderviken, Bjärehalvön and Kattegat. The pleasant climate, the romantic and idyllic atmosphere with the remote fishing village and the light from the sea contributed and still does to the attracting power of the place.
As early as the 1830´s a number of Scandinavian painters were fascinated by the beauty of Arild´ss landscape and eventually they created a fertile artists´ environment, where among others the two prominent landscape painters , the Dane Frederik Christian Kiaerskou and the Norwegian Adolf Tidemand had their easels put up.
Arild | 
Oversættes | 
Arild-Fishermen | 
Arild´s Harbour 2006 |
Mother Cilla
In the middle of the 19th century Arild had a popular centre for thetown´s fishermen and the visiting artists and summer guests. That was the energetic and outspoken Cecilia Andersson, who converted her big home into an inn, which she called Mother Cilla.
The house still exists in a completely changed rebuilding, but was then a centre for artistic activity and socializing. A sort of forerunner of the famous Brøndum´s Hotel in the Skaw.
Among the artists was also Natanael Beskow., who portrayed Mother Cilla in September 1891 on one of the doors in the hotel. The portrait is still there. The tradition of artists paying the host with paintings, was quite alien to Mother Cilla. She wanted money on the table. The story doesn´t say anything about whether an exception was made in the Beskow´s case!
Mother Cilla´s status as the uncrowned queen of the fishing village in the 1890´s, was finally established, when King Oscar II visited Arild in 1894. The lunch was taken at Mother Cilla´s. At the head of the table sat the king and his partner, well, Mother Cilla, of course!
Mor Cilla | 
Hotel Mother Cilla | 
The Visit of Oskar II | 
Royal Letter |
Danish Artists in Arild
Peter Severin Kröyer, who became one of the most renowned Skaw painters, stayed in Arild as early as 1872 and revisited the place in 1881 and 1885. Some of his works from here can be seen at the Skaw Museum.
The naturalistic drawings of the poor fishing village´s population show the tendency to move away from the former period´s romantic depictions.
Another frequent summer guest among the artists was Viggo Pedersen, who also established and managed an artists´ school. The number of Danish Arild artists were large and August Jerndorff and Bernhard Middelboe also deserves a mention.
When you consider how many of the Danish artists, who gathered in Arild, Hornbæk and the Skaw, it is clear that it is the small fishing villages, which often created the inspiration.
P.S.Krøyer | 
Mother Cilla | 
Girl from Arild | 
Shoemaker in Arild |
Swedish Artists in Arild
The Swedish artists also came to Arild and Mother Cilla, but they came later than the Danes. Carl Fredrik Hill visited Arild in 1870, 72 and 73, but most Swedes didn´t arrive until some years into the 1880´s. Richard Bergh, who later became the head of Sweden´s National Museum, came to Arild for the first time in 1884, Gustaf Cederström arrived on his first summer visit in 1887. Fritz von Dardel was in Arild in1891, where he made a drawing from Mother Cilla´s 65th birthday. The most frequent guest was Gustaf Rydberg, who lived in Arild every summer from 1889 to 1909.
Many female artists were productive in Arild. Elisabeth Keyser lived here for several summers in the 1890´s and even established a painters´school. Emilia Lönblad lived in Arild in 1891 and 1892. Sophie Stiernstedt became a summer resident in 1901. A local talent was Gisela Trapp, who in her young years (the middle of the 1890´s) came to Arild to paint. She was married to Oscar Trapp, one of the consuls of Helsingborg, and she eventually became important in the area. She was deeply religious and had a Catholic chapel built in her garden in the western part of Arild. It was finished in 1921 and is still used by the Catholic Church.
Without mentioning all the Swedish and foreign painters, who came to Arild, it can be seen as an early centre of outdoor painting and can be compared to the Skaw.
Mother Cilla´s 65th birthday | 
Viking Style Arild | 
Bo Folkvi |
Mølle – The Seaside Resort
Mölle gradually became the real tourist magnet. Everybody was talking of the ”shameless Mölle", where men and women bathed together! The fact that Mölle was one of the first places in Europe with such a frank behaviour did not go down well with som of the Mölle inhabitants. When they were out of town they often said that they came from Arild where such risqué behaviour was unheard of.
Oskar II:s visit in 1894 in Arild and Mølle and Emperor Wilhelm´s landing in 1907 became the highlight and a proof of the area´s attracting power. Oscar scratched his name in one of the caves in Kullen, which later was named ”the Oscar Cave”.
Mölle by the Sea | 
The two sexes in bath | 
Beach Nymph | 
Ransvik |
Berlin - Mølle
In the first decades of the 20th century Mølle´s tourism grew intensely. A new train connection between Mølle and Höganäs, which was opened in 1909, was a deciding factor in area´s transformation into southern Sweden´s first and largest tourist area. The international status of Mølle was underlined with a direct train connection between Berlin and Mølle.
Tourists in Mölle | 
Viking Style Mølle |
The White Mølle
Mølle´s attraction gradually, especially after the turn of the century, occasioned the building of a number of hotels. Hotel Kullaberg, Hotell Elfverson, Turisthotellet and Grand Hotel, for example. But even before the prime of the hotes, a number of houses had their own local characteristic. The typical Mølle house had a high base floor with a scullery and on this was the apartment itself. The houses are white and that colour is still typical of the houses in Mølle.
Mölle – The White Town | 
Mølle 2003 | 
Attractive tourist area | 
The Tourist Hotel Mölle | 
Hotel Kullaberg |
The Kulla Village – A Cultural Melting Pot
It was not only the advocates of Romanticism and the painters, who found a place where they could breathe freely in the Kullen area´s dramatic and romantic nature. You could also meet culture figures with quite a different understanding of the life.
Georg Brandes stayed in Mølle in 1890, for example. August Strindberg described a visit to Mölle and to Kullen in his "Legends". However, it was mostly his soul and his troubles he depicted here, while Selma Lagerlöf ten years later was more occupied with Kullen´s animated nature in her: "Niels Holgerssons Wonderful Journey Through Sweden". Selma Lagerlöf lived in Mölle in the summer 1906 with Sophie Elkan.
Hjalmar Söderberg met the Dane Emelie Voss during his stay in Mölle in 1907 and was cheered up after his failed marriage.
Further on in the 20th century Vilhelm Ekelund, Ivar Lo Johansson, Anders Österling and Ola Hansson visited the Kulla Village for longer or shorter periods of time.
Ablahamn |
Hotel Kullaberg |
The Tourist Hotel Mölle |
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