If you leave Lund on the road to Odarslöv, you’ll pass by a place that has been forgotten since many years. It is not more than a kilometre away, actually on the same road as the windmill I wrote about a few months ago. The road was long ago part of the main road between Malmö and Stockholm. This was before the fifties, and even if the traffic not can be compared with today, it must have been more busy than it is now. The road has since then been straightened up and also widened. That is, except right outside this forgotten about place, where the original road and its concrete surface is still more or less intact. You have to get off the ordinary route to drive on it, though. During many decades, there were a roadhouse here. La Strada. That was its name. If you know some Italian, you know this means ‘The road’. It gives an idea how important this road once were. You could stay over the night, and also eat or just having a cup of coffee. Many from Lund went there too, since it was also a dance place in the evenings. All this changed over the night in 1954, when the new motorway – the first one in Sweden, in fact – opened up for traffic. The new motorway passed by just a few hundreds of meters away, but no one would ever get off to drive on this road any more. There are thousands of such stories, all over Europe. When the motorways were built, whole villages were forgotten about. La Strada didn’t die, though, probably since many from Lund continued to visit the place. The business managed to carry on as a dance place for some twenty more years, and the hostel survived even until the early 2000s, when it eventually had to close down due to a fire. La Strada wont stay for much longer, because a giant particle accelerator is planned to be built on this place in a few years from now. If La Strada would be a good representative for the old and much slower life than we live today, the particle accelerator and everything that comes around it must be quite the opposite. I think it would be good if La Strada didn’t have to stay and see also this grow up.
Hmm … reminds me of the Interstellar Highway in the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy
Yes, there’s a lot like that. For instance the main road from Carinthia to Italy. The highway was built along the same valley, much of it cutting corners in tunnels, and the whole roadside infrastructure became obsolete, especially the roadhouses. Same when the tunnel between Carinthia and Slovenia (then part of Yugoslavia) was built. The old road over a pass became almost obsolete – and is nice to drive now.
Our most famous road like this is Route 66. The same thing happened; Interstate 40 was built, and no one traveled Rt. 66 any longer.
Cool place, we have to go there some day…
Ove, very interesting story and one I suspect is repeated all over the world as “progress” overtakes those things of the past. I always feel a little sad seeing what was once important being lost with little or no memory of history — but now your blog post is part of the recorded history isn’t it?
Story well told and accompagnied by fine melancholic images. Photographing this scenery in warm sunlight gives a certain subtle tension: Grey weather, drizzle, fog seem much more appropriate for decay, but then you are less then a half step away from cliche. The blue sky in that sense is kind of a protective measure, also ensuring that the story trickles in much slower and probably remains longer.
I’m afraid I’m one of them who hasn’t read the Hitch-hiker’s guide to the Galaxy… I can imagine that many roads became obsolete when the tunnels and bridges where built i your country, Andreas. As you write, those roads are today the most lovely roads to drive.
Chris, I have certainly heard (literally) about Route 66, but I had no idea it was one of those roads. Interesting!
Earl, I feel the same, a sort of sadness over what is left behind in history. At least, some one did write about La Strada, it wont be completely forgotten now. You and a few more know about it.
Markus, you’re absolutely right. I could have chosen fog and dark overclouds, but went for sunlight. For reasons, because I can really sense this is a happy place, where so much fun once went on. Even if the place is in deep decay, the atmosphere is not. You could almost imagine that you, after having taken that photo, walks in to have a nice cup of coffee and a cinnamon bun.
Karin, we should definitely go there together, some times.
Nice pix.
I jog past there now and then.
Still standing, but looks more fallen apart every time i see it.
Tack för kommentaren, Mats! Nu brann det dessutom en gång till, på midsommarafton, förfallet accelererar.