Today I visited Villa Muramaris with Dorty and Eddy. It’s situated just a few kilometres north of Visby.
Muramaris was built by the two artists Johnny and Ellen Roosval, 1915–1917. Their love story is very romantic. It’s hard to find information on English, but I found an interesting text written by Dorina Mocan. It tells the story of this place’s mystery.
I also found this article in The Indepedent:
It was here that Ellen and Johnny Roosval fled early in the last century to avoid the scandal when Ellen, the wife of a Swedish diplomat, ran off with her son’s young tutor. After roaming the world, they came to Gotland, where they found this spectacular site overlooking the sea and immediately staked out their future house with champagne bottles. Contrary to expectations, the love affair lasted all their lives. Ellen became a great sculptor, Johnny a professor of art history, and Muramaris, built in 1917, became a hub of artistic life. Now, after a period of neglect (Ellen died in 1952), the house and garden are being lovingly restored, and it is hoped that Muramaris will once again become an important arts centre. To this end, a smart new café has opened, conference facilities have been installed, and five Gotland-style holiday cottages have been built on the grounds.
On the top of the house was a winter garden, and if I remember it right, did this in-house garden cause several problems with moisture?
I zoomed in on these ”drainpipes,” but really, it’s like an insult to call these beautiful, fairylike women “drainpipes”, which was their function: to lead the water out of the winter garden.
About this statue, I know nothing, and it stayed in the shadow while we were there.
Muramaris means ”the hearth by the sea”. The house was built around Ellen’s magnificent sandstone stove, in which one of the figures – the goddess of love – will be reached by the last sunbeams on June 21st, summer solstice.
I think it was a little fun to be here exactly today…
