Djursholm

The villa town that became a model

Djursholm was founded in 1889 and has since been characterized by villa construction on large plots. Over the years, the older houses have been complemented with more modern villas, town centre development and smaller areas of multi-family housing, but the basic pattern remains.

Several areas consist of buildings that are typical of their era — National Romanticism, Neoclassicism, Functionalism. Walking through Djursholm is therefore also to walk through half a century of Swedish architectural history.

The model spread. Stocksund, Enebyberg, Saltsjöbaden, Storängen and Österskär were all developed according to the same idea: villas for wealthy Stockholmers, at a proper distance from the "unhealthy" big city, and always along a new railway line.

The estate and the castle

The Djursholm property has been known since the Middle Ages. When the name is first mentioned, in 1432, it refers to the peninsula in Stora Värtan that today is called Gamla Djursholm, between Samsöviken and Germaniaviken.

Djursholm Castle is located a few hundred metres away. The building was originally erected in the early 1500s and has been rebuilt and restored several times. The estate belonged for a long time to the Banér family. Today the castle houses Danderyd Municipality's administration.

The burial grounds beneath the villas

Djursholm has three burial grounds, all from the Late Iron Age — approximately 500–1050 AD.

• Svalnäs burial ground — around seventy graves in two areas, considered Danderyd's largest and most impressive. Originally the graves lay in a single extended area, but garden work has divided the field in half. Both sections extend into the park surrounding Svalnäs farm.
• Ekeby burial ground — the largest in Djursholm, with both mounds and stone settings. Divided in two by today's Danderydsvägen.
• Ösbyby burial ground — east of the riding school, partly on land that is now built up.

At Ösbysjön in 1924 a boat was found, hollowed out from an oak log, probably from the 1100s.

Getting here

Roslagsbanan — it was the railway that made the villa town possible, and it still runs.