The west parts of Umeå

Today we joined a guided tour featuring the west part of the city. We felt a little as tourists in our hometown, partly due to the Swedish with German accent the guide spoke. During the 1½ hour tour the guide told us a lot about Umeå and different houses in town.

We learned that Umeå got its city privileges already 1622, so it's an old town.

"The butter box" ("smörasken") was built as a bank house in 1877. Later it has been used as library and school, but is today office for Umeå Energy.








In the west parts there are still some old wooden buildings, but in the city center everything was destroyed in the big city fire 1888. Many of the old houses are today protected under the Heritage Conservation Act, so only restricted renovations are allowed.

Lieutenant Leopold Grahn had this house built for him in 1893. At this time the yard houses were stable and bakery, but nowadays renovated to apartments.


Already 1764 the first hospital in northern Norrland was opened here in Umeå. The big yellow wooden house was built in 1785 and is today the oldest building in Umeå. Nowadays, the buildings have changed to offices. The building to the right was built 1893 to be the surgery, but the hospital moved to larger buildings just 10 years later and the house hosts the office of our landlord today.