Visit Kyrkö, Sweden’s Quaint Car Cemetery and Unlike Destination
If Sweden is on the itinerary for your next trip, make sure you head to Kyrkö and visit its now infamous car cemetery. The history of the cemetery starts in a peat bog in Southern Sweden, now home to old and long-rusted and disheveled Volvos, Saabs and every once in a while, an Amercian muscle car or two.
Ake Danielsson bought the forested peat bog in 1935 intending to harvest natural fertilizer and fuel by hand. Being quite the handyman, he built his own peat shredder out of old car engines. The post-war years gave way to a rise in car ownership, and as such the old car would be ‘left for dead’ in the surrounding Kyrkö forest, aka Ake’s backyard.
He started collecting them and became a self-taught expert in all things ‘old junker’, which eventually led to a very successful car parts business, much to the dismay of Kyrkö’s City Hall, which requested for all the cars to be moved to an authorized recycling site. However, Ake had inclement weather and friends and fans of the rusty old automobiles on his side, so the City Hall’s attempts to stop his collection from growing were frustrated and he was able to keep this spot until he died in 2000.
Full story on Atlas Obscura.
Photo: HRNICK
Photo: HRNICK
Photo: Susanne Nilsson
*Featured image by Pelle Sten
