Head into rural territory in southern Sweden. The likelihood of coming across rock walls as property enclosures and dividers is high. The land commonly contained (contains?) lots of rock. It was the farmer’s plight to find, dig up and dispose of these rocks if farming was to be possible and feasible. Those farmers who didn’t give up and emigrated to the USA assembled the pieces as walls. Not a bad idea. It was the beginning of a rock wall evolution.
A mighty rock wall.
In the late 19th/early 20th century the National Romantic architectural style took hold in Sweden. Best described as a kind of Scandinavian Art Nouveau, it romanticised about the past. The farmers’ rock walls were inspirational. At the same time urban areas started to grow. New suburbia appeared. Rich folks liked the idea of rock walls. Constructed in a slightly more sophisticated way obviously. Solid as a rock they looked. Still standing equally so over a hundred years later.
