Technology Ulricehamn, Västra Götaland County

Liareds orgelfabrik

Preserved organ workshop at the Skog farm in Liared, where three generations of the Johansson family built church organs until the 1970s; the workshop is kept as it was left.

Opening hours unknown

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About the museum

The organ factory is on the family farm Skog in Liared, a little over a mil east of Ulricehamn. Operations started in the mid-19th century with Svante Johansson (born 1828), who was self-taught and built his first organ in secret together with a schoolteacher. Between 1857 and 1890 he built about fifteen organs, most of them for churches in the Diocese of Skara.

His son Levin Johansson took over the workshop and built his first own organ in 1891. Under the name Liareds Orgelbyggeri he made about twenty new organs up to 1940, and many rebuilds and extensions besides. His son Nils took over in the 1940s and towards the end specialised in smaller choir organs. The business continued for just over a hundred years and closed in the 1970s, because no fourth generation was able to take over.

The workshop remains in the condition it was in when Nils laid down his tools: the tools are in their places, and an unfinished choir organ, organ pipes, drawings and organ models are still there. The family has taken on responsibility for keeping the workshop as a memorial to a craft that has almost disappeared. In recent years groups have been able to visit the workshop.

Highlights

Organ workshop that remains as it was when it closed
Tools, organ pipes, drawings and organ models
Unfinished choir organ
Three generations of organ builders in the Johansson family