The hotel Fabriken Furillen is the result of the complete transformation of an old limestone quarry. Photo: Johan Hellström

If your first glimpse of Gotland’s Fabriken Furillen doesn’t make you turn around and head back to the mainland, then you will be well rewarded. Beckoning in the distance like a ghostly memorial to the industrial age, this abandoned limestone quarry turned hotel has enough natural and man-made scenery to keep your jaw dropping.

Time for a change
It was Gotland’s natural beauty that first attracted commercial photographer Johan Hellström to the approximately 3,000 square kilometer (1,160 square mile) island off Sweden’s south-eastern coast. He was especially taken by the ever-shifting light, dramatic skies, sandy beaches and endless fields of wild flowers.

In 1999, after spending a number of summers at their second home on Gotland, Hellström, his wife and their two daughters, sold their belongings and left the Swedish west coast city of Gothenburg for the island of Gotland and their recently purchased limestone quarry on the four square kilometer island of Furillen off the north-eastern coast of Gotland.


Johan Hellström and his family left the big city and started life afresh on Gotland. Photo: Cari Simmons

“I was traveling for work 260 days a year and had no time for the family. We decided to move so that I could travel less, by bringing the work to Gotland instead,” Hellström says. Reaching 40 was another turning point. “I think it can be good to get a new start in life and, like a computer, clean up your hard drive,” he says.

Getting started
The first rounds of renovations began in the crumbling workers’ canteen. With five rooms complete, the Hellströms began providing food and board to visiting photographers and their teams, working on projects during the winter months. This worked so well that the couple was persuaded to expand the accommodations.

The result is an 18-room hotel and restaurant styled in industrial shades of gray with pared down design in true Scandinavian style. There is an equal portion of austerity and luxury, with crackling fires and freshly baked bread tossed in for warmth. Hellström has created an austere and spacious interior that is meant to encourage interaction. Photo: Johan Hellström

Hellström is the main designer or “style police,” he says self-mockingly. He created a subdued interior because he didn’t want to distract from Gotland’s natural beauty, as startling in the winter as in the summer. “No matter how strong the design is, nature is always stronger,” he says.

He had no previous experience in the hotel or restaurant branch, but Hellström’s traveling days had left him with plenty of impressions along with a clear idea of what he liked and didn’t like as a guest. “I noticed that a lot of hotels have so many distractions that the guests disappear,” he says. “I wanted to create spaces that would welcome interaction instead."

Past meets present
The Hellströms bought the property from cement company Cementa AB. Prior to that, the Swedish military had been using the island of Furillen to patrol the Baltic Sea, and it wasn’t until the early 1990s that foreign visitors were allowed to visit this remote stretch of Gotland.

The limestone quarry delivered its last shipment in the early 1970s. One elderly Fabriken Furillen visitor, who used to work at the quarry, was sorry to see it still standing. “He liked the hotel and restaurant, but thought the excavation site was ugly and should be torn down,” Hellström says. “But it’s a monument to its time and a good reminder that one can never destroy as much as we did 50 years ago. I like to turn the negative into the positive.”

Still, Furillen’s uniqueness appeals to most, and word has spread rapidly throughout Sweden as well as far beyond. The hotel attracts many foreign visitors, especially Italians and French, in addition to the trendy Stockholmers who beat a path to it in the summer.


Little “hermit huts” offer peace and quiet. Photo: Johan Hellström

Different atmosphere
Although he has cut down on his traveling since moving to Gotland, Hellström admits that both he and Anna-Karin are working harder now than ever. At the same time, he says that the change of lifestyle has been rewarding for the whole family. “No two days are the same here,” he says. “One day it can be completely deserted and then the next day it’s full of activity.”

He also appreciates the informal, more spontaneous atmosphere on Gotland and says that the family has expanded its circle of friends, meeting people with different job skills and backgrounds and learning about new things. “People have more time to stop and chat and help each other out here than in the city,” he says. “I can’t imagine living anywhere else. This is life.”

FACTS

Fabriken Furillen

• Hotel, restaurant, bakery, conference rooms and “eremitkojor” (hermit huts).
• Open all year round, except January.
• furillen.nu

Gotland

• Gotland is Sweden's largest island.
• The island’s medieval city of Visby is a UNESCO World Heritage site.
• Getting to Visby: High-speed ferries travel daily from Stockholm. The trip takes approximately three hours. There are direct flights to Visby from Oslo, Helsinki, Hamburg, Stockholm, Gothenburg and other Swedish cities.
• www.gotland.info
  www.destinationgotland.se
  
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  It was with a certain amount of trepidation that freelance writer Cari Simmons ventured out to Furillen in the dead of winter. But the sun prevailed and Gotland and its people won her over. She can’t wait to return.
  
  The author alone is responsible for the opinions expressed in this article.
  
  Classification: A188EN

© Photos 1 and 3–5: Johan Hellström
© Photo 2: Cari Simmons