About Åsens By

When you walk through Åsens By today, you are presented with a landscape as it appeared in the Swedish countryside around the turn of the century, around the year 1900. The site has been protected as a reserve since 2000 with the aim of preserving the village for future generations, but also to tell the story of the people who lived and worked here.

What is a Cultural Reserve?

A cultural reserve is a protected area where both the natural and cultural environment can be included under protection. This includes everything from natural areas, buildings, land, and remnants, to any ongoing activities and the intangible cultural heritage, such as knowledge and traditions (as opposed to a nature reserve, where only the nature itself is protected). Today, there are over 45 cultural reserves across the country, all of which are protected, owned, and managed in different ways. You can read more about cultural reserves on Riksantikvarieämbetes website (In swedish).

The Åsens By Cultural Reserve

In 2000, the municipality of Aneby and the County Administrative Board of Jönköping decided to protect Åsens By as a cultural reserve, making it Sweden’s first cultural reserve.

The purpose is to preserve and showcase a Småland village as it appeared and was used around 1900-1920, which also includes transmitting knowledge about ecologically adapted building care, cultural heritage preservation, and landscape management. All fields, meadows, and pastures are to be worked using traditional methods as much as possible. Fruit and berry trees, as well as gardens, should reflect the practices from that time, and the animals in the village should be of various endangered local breeds that existed on farms in Småland and Sweden during that period.

The reserve covers three farms on a total of 35 hectares and 17 buildings, and since 2006, it has been managed by the Stiftelsen Kulturreservatet Åsens By, which is responsible for maintenance and operations.