Ljugarn

Lime, limestone, tar and lumber was exported from the Ljugarn harbor up until the 19th century. In 1880 the Storugnen ("The big kiln") was extinguished, thereby ending the lime burning era.[4] The remains of the lime kilns can still be found at the harbor. In 1828, the Donner trading house got permission to conduct trade at Ljugarn. When The Donners were declared bankrupt in 1845, trade came to be dominated by Olof Gottfrid Claudelin and two succeeding generations of Claudelins. The "Claudline House" remains in the central part of the village together with a larger limestone house from circa 1600–1700, rebuilt in the 1870s.[4][7]

The first bathers in Ljugarn, 1887, are said to have been Adolf Hauffman, a teacher living in Stockholm who was from Östergarn, and his friend Sigurd Bolin. They also marketed Ljugarn such that it subsequently became the first seaside resort on Gotland.[4] Gotland had become very popular with socialites at the time through Princess Eugenie who lived in Västerhejde, in the west part of the island from the 1860s. Ljugarn became an elegant resort: large scale summer villas were built along the Strandvägen ("The beach road") and during the 1930s there were no less than five seaside pensions in Ljugarn. Among these were Ljugarns pensionat, Pensionat Lövängen and Pensionat Bringsarve.[4]

Among the more noted summer guests were Municipal commissioner Yngve Larsson, who built the "Barnarve" estate in 1919,[1] the artist Louis Sparre who built "Sandarve"[4] in 1914 close by, and the admiral and marine artist Jacob Hägg.[8]

The Ljugarn holiday resort was founded in 1955. It was initially called the Vitvärs holiday resort and was the first of its kind on Gotland.[9] Vitvär is a small fishing village in Ljugarn.[10] In 1953 the Ljugarn Society was founded as a division of the Gotland heritage association. The Ljugarn Society still owns a sauna house at a prime location south of the beach, and a post mill.[11]

As of 2014 Ljugarn is still one of Gotland's main seaside resorts with restaurants, coffee shops, hotels and pensions.[12][13] There are two small museums at Ljugarn, managed by the Ljugarn Cape Cultural Society and the Ljugarn Golf Club.[14]