Varberg Things to Do

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The museum website give a more complete description that I can: this museum is well worth the trip. There is the fortress, an art museum, a cultural exhibit - also on the grounds is a Cycling museum, restaurant as well as rotating exhibits. I recomend the audio tour ( which is free with admission) if you can't read Swedish.

Here's a quote from the website: Länsmuseet Varberg is Halland’s regional museum and is housed in Varberg Fortress. The exhibitions tell the cultural history of the county of Halland in south-west Sweden. The museum’s most famous find is the Bocksten Man, a medieval bog corpse dating from the 14th century. Other exhibitions include peasant life, folk art, the history of the fortress, the legendary ‘kulknappen’ bullet said to have killed Karl XII, and art. For children there is a wardrobe of historical costumes for dressing up and a fishing boat to play in. There are temporary exhibitions on art and cultural history throughout the year.

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Getterön Naturcentrum - Is such a beautiful place to see many types of birds, depending on the season. The new nature center building has a small cafe with tasty items, a gift shop with, very nice birding books, a nature center with several species of birds on display in natural looking environments, and a wonderful photo gallery with many photos for sale. The cafe has 2 scopes that you can use for free to look out onto the marsh and pond. The gift shop has binoculars for sale and you can test them out as well. There is such a nice hiking trail in the area which is quite easy to hike on and lends itself to some really nice picture taking! This was such a nice experience - check out www.getteron.com

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Another macabre exhibit in the Museum of Varberg is King Karl XII's button. This bronze button was not only found missing from the king's uniform, but was discovered to ideally correspond to the size of the hole in the king's skull when he had been mortally wounded in an attack on a Norwegian castle in 1718.
Believing in the king's magical powers, his enemies were convinced that he could only be killed with an object belonging to himself. So, having stolen the button and filled it with lead, they used it to shoot the king in the head. Displayed on a rotating disc and well-lit, it probably is one of the most famous buttons in the world.

Varberg has been a well-known Swedish resort for over a century. The beautifully restored 19th century bathhouse still houses cold baths, where men and women can first bathe naked in separate rooms and then use the sauna. There is an elegant cafe in the building to let them take a rest after what for me would have been a very unpleasant experience. Yet, the Swedes seem to like it.
Opening hours: daily from mid-June till mid-August, 9.00 -18.00, Wed. till 20.00.

Seeing the tragic remains of the 'Bocksten Man' can cost you a sleepless night or at least bring on some reflections on the world's cruel ways. The man lived 600 years ago but that does not lessen the pain he must have felt, being garrotted, impaled and drowned - not necessarily in this order. His body was found by a farmer in a peat bog near Varberg in 1936. The bog kept the body intact for centuries, complete with the medieval clothes: a coat, a hood, shoes and stockings, typical of the period. They can now be seen in a glass case in the museum as well and are the best preserved medieval garments in the whole of Europe. The man's curly red hair is particularly poignant. Why did he have to die like this?

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If you look at the place from the sea, you will know why foreign attackers have always considered this fortress unconquerable. High on a rocky cliff, with the sea on one side and a moat on the others, it could not have been an easy target for enemy. Once a residence of the Swedish king Magnus Eriksson, then for a time in Danish hands, in 1647 it reverted to Sweden again. The oldest sections of the fortress date from the 13th century, while the walls were built in the 17th century. In the 19th century a large part of the fortress was used as a prison. To learn more, you can join one of the guided tours (also in English), during which you will be shown around the inner courtyard and the dungeons. Walking on the cobbled surfaces there can be hard - wear suitable shoes!

The Museum at Varberg houses a permanent exhibition of the history of Halland, including the history of fishing and farming, an exhibition of paintings by artists of the so-called Varberg school of painting and a number of temporary exhibitions. While we were there, there was an exhibition of barbering and hairdressing, quite interesting if you like the subject. There is also a museum of bicycles, yet, to my husband's great disappointment, it was closed when we were there. But visitors flock into the Varberg Museum in large numbers to see just two things: the over 600 year old remains and clothes of the mediaeval "Bocksten Man" and King Karl XII's button. The next couple of tips should make it clear why these two exhibits are all-important. If you click on the photo of the entrance, you'll
see the imprisoned princess in one of the windows, waiting for a knight to climb to her cell
up her long plait.

Open: Mon-Fri 10-16, Sat-Sun 12-16
In summer: daily 10-17

You simply must tour this place. There's a museum that details the lifestyle of the area, from the early 1600's to the ancient date of 1989! ;)

there is also a 'bog mummy', the corpse of a 13th-century man who died in the swamp and whose bones, organs, hair etc were well-preserved.