Backåkra closed this summer
Dag Hammarskjöld’s farm at Backåkra, close to Ystad in Skåne, will be closed for the summer according to the owner. Svenska Turistföreningen (the Swedish Tourist Association) inherited Backåkra when Hammarskjöld died in a place crash in 1961.
A museum there has been showing parts of Hammarskjöld’s property and the farm has also been used for conferences, Svenska Akademien, for instance, has used it as such. But the Tourist Association has long explained that the income isn’t enough to keep the place up and running, and now they are closing for visitors over the summer since the place is in bad shape and needs to be repaired. Says Peter Nygård, member of the board of the Swedish Tourist Association: “During this year we will look at different solutions to try to renovate the buildings while at the same time carry on our business in a financially reasonable manner and in the spirit of Dag Hammarskjöld.”