A visit to Muramaris

Today I have been to Villa Muramaris with Dorty and Eddy. It’s situated just a few kilometers north of Visby.

Muramaris was built by the two artists Johnny and Ellen Roosval 1915–1917. Their lovestory is very romantic. It’s hard to find information on english, but I found an interesting text written by Dorina Mocan. It tells about the mystery on this place.

I also found this article in The Indepedent:

It was here where Ellen and Johnny Roosval fled early 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 and Johnny a professor of art history and Muramaris, which was built in 1917, 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 installed and five Gotland-style holiday cottages built in the grounds.

On the top of the house was a winter garden and if I remember it right did this inhouse garden cause several problems with moist.

I zoomed in these ”drainpipes”, but really, it’s like an insult to call these beautiful, fairylike women drainpipes, but that was the function, to lead out the water from 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 get reached by the last sunbeams on June 21th – summer solstice.