Fredriksdal in Helsingborg - museums and gardens

Writer: Helena Bergström

Fredriksdal in Helsingborg, or Fredriksdal Museum and Gardens, is a lovely open-air museum in Skåne. Here you can experience old-fashioned buildings, meet farm animals and walk in beautiful gardens.

Fredriksdal in Helsingborg

Fredriksdal's museums and gardens offer a relaxing environment, and you can stroll around the large area for a long time. We were here in August last year, when we travelled around Skåne in our motorhome, but didn't have time to write about our visit then.

Fredriksdal is located just north-east of the centre of Helsingborg, in north-western Skåne.

Visiting Fredriksdal in Helsingborg

A visit to Fredriksdal in Helsingborg is perfect for a quiet day outdoors, perhaps with your family. The open-air museum is open all year round, although some shops and events are closed during the low season.

We took a map of the area from the main entrance and tried to wind our way around in a reasonably logical order, starting by turning left just after the entrance. We show what we encountered along the way, with the caveat that we certainly missed a few things.

Theatre Museum - Poppe and Rydberg

We first found the "Theatre Museum" - two tiny museum buildings dedicated to Nils Poppe and Eva Rydberg respectively. Very charming! Poppe is well remembered for his career in comedy.

Despite a long and impressive career, Eva Rydberg is still active in acting. Today she is the director of Fredriksdalsteatern and on her website you can read that in the summer of 2022 they will perform Fawlty Towers at the theatre, with Eva Rydberg as Sybil and Adde Malmberg as Basil. Fun!

The Fredriksdal neighbourhood

We then moved on to Stadskvarteren, where you step into a small town centre with a vicarage, pharmacy, shops and small museums.

Ågård

A little further away, surrounded by greenery, you will find the farm Ågård. The farm, which dates from the 19th century, once stood by the Lagan river. Gunne Persson, Christina Andersdotter and their six children lived here for more than 50 years.

Bone crusher, shovel mill and timber saw

At Fredriksdal in Helsingborg, there are also three old buildings next to each other: a bone crusher, a scale mill and a timber saw.

• Leg stamping was powered by hydroelectricity and used to produce bone meal, which was used as fertiliser for the fields.
• Slate mill was used when there was enough water to power the wheel, for domestic grinding.
• Timmersågen was a water-powered saw, used for small-scale operations.

Lillarydsgården

As we continued our walk in the area, we came to Lillarydsgården, which can be partly dated to the mid-17th century. The farm comes from the parish of Perstorp in northern Skåne.

Near the farm there were pastures with cows and pigs. At Fredriksdal in Helsingborg, you can see various farm animals such as the cow, the red cow and the Linderödssvin.

The manor house

The main building on the site is the beautiful Herrgården. The house was originally built in 1787 as a summer residence for the wealthy director Fredrik Wilhelm Cöster.

In 1918, the property was donated to the City of Helsingborg by the last private owner, Gisela Trapp, with the requirement that the city create an open-air museum and a botanical garden.

Right next to the mansion is Fredriksdal's cosy Garden Café.

Parks and gardens

Fredriksdal also has an English park, a French park and a number of different gardens: a spice garden, a cultural-historical kitchen garden, a utility garden and a botanical garden.

In the botanical garden you can see a large selection of wild Skåne plants. The Friluftsmuseet works with the Skåne County Administrative Board, the Lund Botanical Society and the Botanical Garden at Lund University to identify species at risk of disappearing and then spread them to new locations.

More to see and do in the neighbourhood

• Ramlösa Brunnspark
• Picturesque Råå
• Things to do in Helsingborg
• Sofiero castle and castle garden
• The Tropicarium in Helsingborg