An entire Swedish village is for sale: Sätra Brunn, in Vastmanland County, about 90 minutes north of Stockholm, one of Sweden’s oldest health resorts founded in 1700.
CNN travel writes:
….A rare opportunity to buy an entire, fully functional village has come up in Vastmanland County, Sweden, just 90 minutes north of Stockholm.
Built in the 18th century as a health resort, Sätra Brunn is a picture-perfect example of Swedish village architecture, complete with a church, a school and a hotel, and has a bottling operation to market its own local spring water.
In continuous use as a spa town for 320 years, it was bought by its current owners in the early 1990s….
Jonas Martinsson, who is handling the sale for Christie’s International Real Estate, says this group of 15 local residents were “happy amateurs with some education and experience, but not a lot. They wanted to buy it and preserve it so it wasn’t cut up.”
The group have lovingly maintained the 62-acre village of more than 70 buildings for nearly 30 years. They’ve also built up a program of regular events and celebrations, including an annual Midsummer party which attracts around 6,000 visitors,
Now, however, “they’re getting up in age a bit and they feel like it’s time for someone else to take the lead,” says Martinsson.
Aside from the hotel, the deconsecrated church and the pre-school educating 40 local children, there is a conference center, a restaurant, and a spa with a pool, gym and sauna…..
…The village currently functions as a summer getaway for Scandi travelers and locals and — in a region where winter temperatures can reach minus 10 C (14 F) or lower — insulation would need to be added to some buildings in order to make it year-round accommodation.
There would be opportunities to get subsidies from Swedish preservation groups to assist in the refurbishment of the historic buildings, says Martinssen….
And finally there is, of course, the buyer who is drawn here by the spring water, just as the village’s founder, Dr Samuel Scragge, was when he built the well and the village around it in 1700.
It’s only one of seven springs awarded Sweden’s highest purity designation ….
