Sandhamn - History

History

The island Sandön is first mentioned in historical records in the 1280s when King Magnus Barnlock donated it to the abbey of St Claire in Stockholm together with the islands Runmarö Skarpprunmarn, Vindalsö, and Eknö. The island is possibly described in a travel account by Valdemar Sejr in the mid-13th century. Until the 16th century, Sandhamn is mentioned as Svenska Sandön ("Swedish Sand Island") and is said to belong to the Eknö by village. At that time, the island was most likely uninhabited and mostly used for pasturage by inhabitants on the surrounding islands. No later than the 17th century, the inhabitants of Eknö had maritime piloting as a by-income, but, as the navigable strait passing by Sandhamn was restricted to the Swedish Navy and ships going to Estonia and Latvia, a single pilot was settled on the island by the end of that century.

During the reign of Charles XI (1660–1697) the passage outside Sandhamn was opened to commercial shipping which increased the need for piloting in the strait. In the 18th century, three cottages on the island were used by the pilots. By the mid-19th century piloting had become the main source of income for the islanders and Eknö by was finally abandoned for Sandhamn. While serving as a customs inspector 1852-1869, the poet Elias Sehlstedt (1808–1874) described the life of the people of Sandhamn.

During the second half of the 19th century, approximately 300 people had settled in Sandhamn, which made it one of the largest settlements in the Stockholm Archipelago. A regular steamship connection with Stockholm, passing by Stavsnäs, was established in 1865. It quickly transformed Sandhamn to a popular spot for summer vacations for the wealthy class — islanders gradually rebuilding their cottages to accommodate the increasing numbers of summer guests. The Royal Swedish Sailing Association (Kungliga svenska segelsällskapet. KSSS) started to organise regattas in the 1890s and Sandhamn, with its proximity to both the Swedish capital and to navigable waters, became a natural choice. The organisation had a clubhouse built in 1897 to the design of Fredrik Liljekvist and Sandhamn has remained one of the main hubs for pleasure sailing in Sweden since.

Sandön, together with the neighbouring islands Lökholmen and Korsö, with its mixture of historical piloting structures and post-World War II summer cottages, is a historical milieux unique to the Stockholm Archipelago. It includes the Korsö lighthouse (Korsö torn) designed by architect Carl Hårleman and inaugurated in 1757 as the first lighthouse featuring a moving light beam. In 1914, the coal and oil dealer Kurt Heinicke had several odd structures built on Lökholmen, including a Sami hut, a curiosity museum, an observatory, and two private residences for himself. Today one of his residences and the observatory survives.