Fjällbacka Church and Cemetery, Tanum, Sweden

The grave of Jens Läckberg is mentioned in Camilla Läckberg's novel Fyrvaktaren ("The Lighthouse Keeper"), 2009. In the Norwegian edition, p. 379, one can read:

«Han ligger ved siden av Jens.» Erica pekte på en rund gravstein i vakker granitt med navnet Jens Läckberg inngravert. Jens hadde vært en god venn av faren, og de husket ham godt fra oppveksten. En blid, sosial og spøkefull mann med trivelig ølmage. («He is lying next to Jens.» Erica pointed at a round gravestone in beautiful granite with the name Jens Läckberg engraved. Jens had been a good friend of their father, and they remembered him well from when they were growing up. A friendly, social and humorous man with a charming beer gut. (Blog editor's translation.))

Presumably Camilla Läckberg had written her own father into the story.

The stranger from the sea.

A grave of German soldiers who were washed ashore during WW1. The bodies were moved to the German section of Kviberg cemetery in Gothenburg in 1966. I suppose that the grave shown in the photo is the same grave mentioned in Camilla Läckberg's novel Tyskungen ("The German Brat") from 2007, in my opinion the best book she has written so far.

Fjällbacka kyrka (church) was finished in 1892. It was built from the red granite which can only be found in Bohuslän. The cemetery was consecrated in 1907 and expanded in 1970.

Sources/references

• Fjällbacka church (Wikipedia article, Swedish version)
• The official website of Camilla Läckberg (Swedish and English version)

Updated last time on Monday 12 July 2010 at 22.30.

Fjällbacka, Tanum, Sweden

The actress Ingrid Bergman spent many summers at Dannholmen west of Fjällbacka. The "town" square is named after her (Ingrid Bergmans torg). The path to Kungsklyftan starts in the background.


Kungsklyftan ("King's Crevice"), earlier names Ramneklovan or Korpklyftan, got its name after King Oscar II visited Fjällbacka in 1886. Kungsklyftan is known among others from the movie Ronja Rövardotter (Ronia The Robber's Daughter) based on the book by Astrid Lindgren. The place was also a crime scene in Camilla Läckberg's crime novel Predikanten ("The Preacher"), 2004. Kungsklyftan was closed in June 2010 due to security work.

All the photos were taken in June 2010.

The Swedish west coast and archipelago is a popular tourist destination. The locality of Fjällbacka in Tanum municipality, originally a fishing locality, has been visited by many Scandinavians (and others!) over the years, quite often arriving by sailboat. Nowadays the small place has also become known because of Camilla Fjällberg's crime novels, as almost all the plots have taken place there. If you didn't know it was fiction, you could have thought the place was rather dangerous, considering the number of murders!

I have read all the Läckberg novels and always imagined the place to be somewhat bigger than it is in reality. My wife on the other hand thought the place was smaller! It is a wonderful place to visit, first of all in the summer season. Fjällbacka is situated about 150 km north of Gothenburg and 165 km south of Oslo. If you travel by car from Oslo, it will take about 2 hours and 15 minutes to get there.

The oldest houses in Fjällbacka are from the 18th and 19th century. Some of them had signs revealing the history of the house and the families that lived in it. A wonderful idea - just a pity that I didn't take any photos to use as examples. I will surely visit Fjällbacka again later, so this blog article should be considered as Part I only... Don't forget to visit the photo gallery at Fjällbacka's official page!

Updated on 10 July 2010 at 20.00 (a few details were added).