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Millesgården can be termed a work of art in its own right, a nicely balanced stage design of terraces, fountains, stairways, sculptures and columns, coupled with a diversity of vegetation and an immense vista across the waters of Värtan from the rocky heights of Herserud.

It was in 1906 that the sculptor Carl Milles bought a plot of land on the island of Lidingö, and in 1908 he had a house and a studio built there. Carl and Olga remained in this lovely home until 1931. A magnificent donation by Carl and Olga Milles established, in 1936, the Carl and Olga Milles Lidingöhem Foundation. Millesgården was first opened for the general public in the closing years of the 1930s.

Millesgården is still run by the foundation, which includes representatives of the Swedish Government and the Municipality of Lidingö. This unique setting, one of Sweden?s foremost tourist attractions, welcomes thousands of visitors every year. It is open all the year round and the intention is for the museum, aided by exhibitions and activities of various kinds, to continue in the visionary spirit of Carl Milles himself.

Carl Milles' acquired the property bordering Millesgarden's lower terrace in 1948, with the intention of building a gallery for exhibiting the works of new generations of creative artists. Architect Johan Celsing's design was chosen in a competition proclaimed by Millesgard in 1996. The new gallery was inaugurated by the Swedish King Carl Gustav in oktober 1999, and was later in the year awarded the prestigious Kasper Salin prize by the Swedish Society of Architects.

The facades are of grey roughened plaster, and the interior consists of white walls and ceilings, lye-treated fir floors and red oak finishes in the reception and museum giftshop. The facade facing the terraces along the restored stone wall is of oiled red oak.

Park and garden

In garden design Carl Milles was a daring improviser, being able to freely integrate such diverse architectural fragments as columns from Gustav Ill's opera house, a marble arch entrance from Stockholm's demolished Hotel Rydberg with a steep stone cliff site transformed by monumental stairways and juniper planted terraces.

One highly personalised garden room is Millesgarden's Little Austria (1924) con­ceived as a surprise for Olga Milles to cele­brate her 50th birthday. Being all too aware of his wife's permanent homesickness for her alpine homeland, Carl chose a steep, stony hollow and with plantings of alpine flora, and a scenography of two wayside pieta chapels, a large wooden replica of a medieval Christ on the crucifix and a lime­stone baptismal fount created a fantasy evocation of Olga's beloved Austria.

Personally Milles loved and wished to evoke at Millesgarden the gardens of Italy's Mediterranean coast. In the newly-built loggia, the Little Studio designed by Evert Milles, Carl commissioned a fresco painting of the bay of Naples with acan­thus and cactus in the foreground and olive and wheat being farmed in the distance.

To further underline the Mediterranean char­acter of the building and landscape fresco painting, straight black and white marble paths, crowned by columns lead to the log­gia. Between the paths pines are planted together with birches for a touch of Nordic spice.

This playful Nordic/south European hybrid, heightened by the bubbling Triton fountain and colourful plantings never fails to charm visitors from the south.