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My cousins were visiting me and my family in Sweden for a couple of weeks and just went back to Australia yesterday. My cousins are 12 and 14 years old so we could go on some shorter road trips with them while they were here. In V\u00e4sterbotten, the county that I live in in the northern province the houses follow a certain model. My cousins quickly asked about all the red houses that they saw all over. Why were they all red?<\/p>\n
Most of the houses are completely red except for the white gables. That\u2019s because of the special paint called Falu red or Falun red that was first created and used in Falun in the copper mines in Dalarna. It is well known for its use on wooden cottages and barns. This paint is now used out of tradition but mostly because of its effectiveness in preserving wood.<\/p>\n
The earliest signs of the use of Falu red are the 16th century and during the 17th century the paint started to fill an additional purpose. The copper color was suppose to imitate the brick buildings which were more common in the south of Sweden as well as Stockholm and Gothenburg. In the northern parts of Sweden wood was the dominating building material instead of brick, therefor making it hard to have the brick decor and wood at the same time.<\/p>\n
In the middle of the 19th century after governmental dislike of the red color people started painting their houses in different colors, mostly light ones like whitish yellow or completely white. Out in the countryside it is still popular today to have the traditional red buildings.<\/p>\n
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My cousins were visiting me and my family in Sweden for a couple of weeks and just went back to Australia yesterday. My cousins are 12 and 14 years old so we could go on some shorter road trips with them while they were here. In V\u00e4sterbotten, the county that I live in in the…<\/p>\n