I shared this post a few years ago on my old blog, and got mixed responses, most of them on the negative side regarding the environmental impact of old cars being left to decay in nature. But if we put that aside for a while, I want to focus on the… coolness, odd beauty, juxtaposition of it.

Båstnässkroten is a place in the west of Sweden, near Töcksfors in the region of Värmland, on the border to Norway. It’s a car junkyard, the remains of a company once run by the Ivansson brothers who sold car parts, primarily to Norwegians, from the 1930s. The family still owns it, but it’s now more of a resting place for the old cars and even if it’s private property it’s open to the public, and anyone can go there to look around (with respect).

My husband heard about this from someone at work when we lived in Sweden, and we went there once while on the way back home from my parents who live further north.

This is one of the most fascinating places I have ever seen. There’s an odd feeling to seeing the contrast between nature and the old rusty cars, and how the ugly becomes beautiful or at least artistic. There was a sort of peaceful atmosphere there – like a true cemetery, and with an eerie feeling too. The only sign of humans other than visitors is this message on one of the houses, which tells that it’s private property but it’s allowed to walk around, have a look, take photos, but please don’t take anything or disrupt.

There are up to around 1000 cars in the area, but nature has taken over and the cars and car parts are overgrown by trees and whatnot. We only saw a small part of the area, because it’s very vast and we didn’t have time to see it all.

I had a great time with the camera, and would love to go back when possible.

This has become a quite famous place and it attracts photographers and car lovers from all over Europe. There’s even a book about it, “Kärleken till en skrot”, which was available on Amazon, but for now it seems to be sold out. If you want to see more, here’s a gallery of more photos, and there’s a video here.