Sundsvall Stenstan

On 25 June 1888 a spark from a steamboat took the wooden town and burned almost all of it in a day, leaving some nine thousand people without houses. Sundsvall was at that moment at the centre of the sawmill boom on the Bothnian coast, and the money to rebuild was there: an ordinance required stone, the streets were widened as firebreaks, and within about six years a new centre of four and five-storey stone buildings in eclectic and neo-Renaissance styles was standing. Around five hundred buildings from that rebuilding survive over some thirty blocks, which is why the district is called Stenstan, the stone city. You walk it rather than visit it.

What you'll find

• A centre rebuilt in about six years - after the 1888 fire.
• Around five hundred stone buildings - across some thirty blocks.
• Wide streets as firebreaks - part of the rebuilding rules.
• Sawmill-boom money in the detail - carving, stucco, ironwork.

When to go

Year round; summer light is best. Two hours.

Things to know

It is an ordinary working town centre, not a preserved quarter. Some blocks have been altered at ground level. Interpretation is limited. Winters are dark and cold this far north.

Nearby

Norra Berget is above the town; the High Coast is north.