Training on Röbäck history
Fourteen authorized tourist guides from Umeå Guide Association were rich and very knowledgeable training of a true expert on Röbäck history, Lennart Forsberg.
We learned about the great earthquake in 7478 BC, deglaciation, ditching of plain and ancient monuments. We looked at the historical sites, like local history society marked with informative signs.It was Röbäck source, as seen already by Urban Hjärne as a health spa in the 1600’s. Many of the villagers had been over 100 years, which was attributed to the ferrous healthy water. We even saw the stone bridges of different ages.
Coastal road, the old Norrstigen between Stockholm and Tornio went through the village. The road did most winter when it was faster and easier to summer utilize waterways. Stenhuggarängen, memory monument stonemasons in Roback, was the next stop, the village has a long stenhuggartradition. Today we can admire Roback stonemasons’ skills, among other things on the bases of former VK building and former post office building at Rådhusesplanaden (now Länsförsäkringar) and the Mimer school. Then we visited war graves from the 1808-1809 war. More than 570 Finnish and Swedish soldiers died in the war hospital in Roback. It supplemented the war hospital in the church cottages on the hill. Over 1,200 injured and sick was taken Roback and the mortality rate was high in especially in dysentery. According to the regulations would graves to be 1.8 meters but usually it was only 0.5 meters deep due to frost and need. Roback residents complained to the governor the power Mountain and requested the lime to sprinkle over the graves and thawed likdelarna.
Lennart Forsberg also talked about the mills in Robäcken and flax. On the gallows in Roback was the last execution in Västerbotten August 24, 1853 after the so-called Hössjömordet. The executioner named Jacob Gyll.
Umeå Guide Association will offer free bike tours even weeks themed story to Roback and odd weeks on the theme of art to the university and hospital area starting den11 June.
Birgitta Bäckström, Secretary, Umeå Guide Association