The best city hikes and walks in Färgensjöarnas Naturreservat

Nice café with a pretty shop space

A lot of people but the place is nice and the food is good

Jonas Alströmer (1685-1761) was a Swedish agricultural and industrial pioneer and co-founder of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences. Among other things, he founded a mechanized textile factory here in Alingsås, which, unlike the "Spinning Jenny" in England (1764) a few years after his death, did not help transform Sweden from an agrarian country into an industrial nation.

The Nolhaga nature reserve in Alingsås is 26 hectares in size and has been protected since 2010. It consists of two wooded mountains separated by a ravine called Klämma. Jonas Alströmer bought the land in 1725 and planted a beech forest, which has now developed into an old forest with large trees and dead wood. Dead wood is an important habitat for fungi, insects and larvae. The area near the city has been a popular hiking area since the late 19th century. In 1921, the city of Alingsås bought Nolhaga to make it accessible to the public. To the west, on the banks of the Mjörn, lies the Nolhagaviken nature reserve.

The artwork "Twisted Sisters", a two-part sculpture made of Bohus granite by Christina Monti, has been standing in front of the Parkbad since 2012. The "Twisted Sisters" are dedicated to the courage of people and cross-border friendship, today and during the Cold War between East and West. Monti's art project deals with the dramatic separation of siblings and families that took place in the GDR and Småland in the early 1960s. Fifty years ago, the Berlin Wall and the Cold War ran straight through the artist's family. In recent years, her artistic career has increasingly resembled detective work, repeatedly leading back to Finsterwalde in the GDR, where the family lived during that time.

At the beginning of 2025, the new Nolhaga Ice Rink (Nolhaga Ishall) was opened, which was built on the site of the previous building. The new hall, designed by Wahlström & Steijner, has an ice surface with changing rooms, sanitary facilities and storage rooms for the club's activities, as well as space for a café, offices, a fitness and warm-up area and a conference room. The two-storey hall has a capacity of 500 spectators. The new building was planned with the best possible energy efficiency. It is heated primarily with the recycled heat from the cooling machines and the meltwater from the ice rink is reused via a closed water cycle. The roof is equipped with solar cells.

The Nolhaga Labyrinth consists of a winding stone path designed by architect Stefan Peterson. It is based on an old Nordic model, the "Baltic Labyrinth". Those who follow the stone path take a journey through time, through history and into the future. On the stones you will find 33 panels with texts about the history of Alingsås. In the middle of the labyrinth there are also two flat rocks that are large enough to sit on and perhaps reflect on the magic of nature in the park. The Nolhaga Labyrinth was built in 2012 by the "Friends of the Museum" and donated to the city of Alingsås.

The creator of Nolhaga is the entrepreneur Jonas Alströmer, one of the six founders of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences. He expanded the central building of his estate into a manor house in 1725 and surrounded it with a remarkable garden. Plants from all over the world were brought to Nolhaga and grown under Alströmer's care. After his death, the estate went into slow decline. The railway contractor Claes Adelsköld, who had acquired the estate in 1877, had the dilapidated main building demolished in 1879-1880 and a new one built, a patrician villa in the Italian neo-Renaissance style, designed by the architect Adrian C. Peterson. Adelsköld's villa is now popularly known as Nolhaga Castle. The current park is largely due to Adelsköld's efforts. The area became open to the public when the city of Alingsås acquired the castle and park in 1921. Nolhaga Castle, which has recently been renovated, houses a restaurant.