A brush with Falu Rödfärg has never been here. It is the sun and the wind that are the “master painters” and give logs, thatched roofs and door planks their colors. If you want to see and experience “old, gray huts”, you have come to the right place.
The Flenarna are first mentioned in history books in 1663. The location on the southern slope of Flenberget by a small stream and with a favorable climate provided good conditions for vegetation and soil. The Fäbodstället today consists of 4 farms with a total of 17 buildings.
The wind howls, the chaffinch trills and the water ripples in the stream when Solleröbladet pays a visit to the yard in front of Hållgården. There is a smell of smoke from the chimney and a pleasant calm hovers over the mountain hut. If you go up to the hay meadow, there is a fantastic view of Lake Siljan with Rättvik church in the distance. “In the 60s, the tourist office in Rättvik recommended trips here so that tourists could see a living mountain hut. And it was the same on Sollerön when there was a tourist office there. Today, not many people find their way here,” says Ingvar Mattsson, who “lives” in Hållgården together with Ann-Britt Englund. “Here, modern people meet the old farming community. Those who expect there to be an ice cream kiosk here will be disappointed. But those who are interested will be all the happier about what they see.”
It used to be called K-marked. Today it is called Riksintresse. It is the County Administrative Board that believes that S. Flenarna is so important for posterity that they have classified the säboden as “National Interest”.
“We farm owners have a big responsibility to preserve the old. There is a list of what we can and cannot do. Plastic furniture is prohibited, for example,” says Ann-Britt. “We have a joint cleaning day every year and we have an annual meeting with the County Administrative Board where we discuss repairs and maintenance together. A few years ago, a hack barn needed a new pitched roof. This year, parts of the old fence yard need to be overhauled and the barn in Smisgården needs a new pitched roof. When it needs to be carpentry, it is skilled carpenters who do the job,” says Ingvar.
It was Ingvar's mother, Håll Anna, who had mountain cows here until 1980. "There were 3 cows and sometimes a few calves," says Ingvar, who was there in the summers as a young boy in the 1950s. "Mother made butter, cheese and butter from the milk. We children lived on pancakes, bread, porridge and fish. There was hardly any meat. And we drank water, juice and milk."
The last year of the Flenars as a living fäbod was 1982 when Håll Anna had goats grazing in the meadow.
The board of the Fäbodlaget consists of Erik Stenback, chairman, Stina Mattsson, secretary, Magnus Wass, treasurer, and members Jan Westman, Rune Håll and Ingvar Mattsson.
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