Mårbacka Memorial Estate
Selma Lagerlöf, one of the most famous authors in the world, was born and raised at Mårbacka. Even as a young girl, she had already decided to become a writer. Visit Selma Lagerlöf’s home and get an exciting guided tour or have lunch at the restaurant.
Café and guided tours at Mårbacka
Not only is Mårbacka the farm where Selma Lagerlöf was born and raised, but there is also a café and opportunities to get a guided tour with exciting stories from another time.
Mårbacka was built in and was remodelled in In , the farm became the property of the Lagerlöf family. In , the farm became Selma’s, and she wrote in her will that the farm should be preserved and shown in the condition it was in at the time of her death.
Find Mårbacka
Mårbacka is located in Östra Ämtervik parish in Sunne municipality in Värmland. It’s just over a mile south of Sunne and is a little over 20 miles to Munkfors as the crow flies. If you are going by car from Sunne, take road , which only takes 15 minutes.
Mårbacka memorial garden, Selma’s family home in Sunne
Selma Lagerlöf left Mårbacka when she was 23 years old to study in Stockholm. During that time, her fat
Selma Lagerlöf
Literature inspired by Värmland
Selma Lagerlöf grew up in Mårbacka in Sunne, so it’s no wonder that the manor home has become a tourist attraction and the pride of the municipality! The connection to Sunne and Värmland is strong in Lagerlöf’s literature – Gösta Berling’s Saga, The Wonderful Adventures of Nils and Jerusalem all contain descriptions of places in the area. In , she became the first woman to receive the Nobel Prize in Literature.
Selma Lagerlöf and Sunne
There are many authors who have taken inspiration from Swedish environments and places. They have events such as romances and murder scenes take place there. Like Camilla Läckberg’s Fjällbacka, Mari Jungstedt’s Gotland, Nina Schulman’s Hagfors or Henning Mankell’s series about crime commissioner Wallander’s life in Ystad. So it’s not surprising that Selma Lagerlöf in her time drew from her surroundings in Sunne.
It is particularly in Gösta Berling’s Saga that Selma has her characters live on farms that are taken from manor houses around Sunne.
Early childhood
The fact that Selma Lagerlöf herself grew up in the manor house Mårbacka in Sunne is certainly of significance. Maybe she visited the
Mårbacka
59°46′52″N13°14′1″E / °N °E / ;
Manor house in Sunne Municipality, Sweden
Mårbacka is a manor house in Sunne Municipality in Värmland, Sweden. The first woman to win the Nobel Prize in Literature, Selma Lagerlöf, was born and raised at Mårbacka.[1][2] Today, the manor building and the surrounding area is kept as a memorial museum honoring her literary career.
Early history
[edit]The estate was owned from about by the assistant vicar Olof Morell and then was inherited by two of his successors in office. The main building was constructed in In it was inherited by the Lagerlöf family and when Selma Lagerlöf's father Lieutenant Gustaf Lagerlöf died in his son Johan took over, but he was unsuccessful running the farm. He went bankrupt and moved to America. The family lost the ownership of the estate in [3]
Selma Lagerlöf
[edit]Selma Lagerlöf acquired main building in and in , she could buy back the whole estate with the help of the prize money she received from the Nobel Prize in Literature in
The manor house was rebuilt in – based upon designs by architect Isak Gustaf Clason (–). She had the buildin
Mårbacka
(Brev skrivet av Selma lagerlšf till Sophie Elkan i slutet av juli )
Selma Lagerlöf
.