Four farms preserved in their original 17th-1800s structure

Four farms and eleven buildings make up Äskhults by. The village has no current inhabitants but is preserved in its historical condition. In 1825 and 1864, a massive land swap known as the storskifte and laga skifte took place. However, the land was divided in such a way that the houses did not need to be moved, allowing the village to preserve its old structure. The four farms - Bengts gård, Jönsas gård, Derras, and Göttas gård - remain in their original locations and provide a glimpse into life from the 1600s to the 1800s.

The last resident died in 1964, and the buildings were preserved through lobbying during the 1940s and 1950s. The village was declared a byggnadsminne in 1981 and has been a cultural reserve since 2004. Today, visitors can see the preserved structures, such as the 1700s village square, and see what life was like in the past.

Bengts gård, named after riksdagsman Bengt Pehrson, consists of a dwelling house and a barn. The current Bengts gård house was built in 1850. Jönsas gård, named after several generations of Jöns-söner over the 1600s and 1700s, features an original weaving loom. The current Jönsas gård house was moved to Äskhults by from Timmerås in Förlanda between 1968 and 1970 after the previous house burned down in 1953. Göttas gård, named in 1755, was bought by Anders Persson from Gödatorp in Gällinge in 1755. Göttas consists of a dwelling house, stall, barn, cellar, 'huggehus' with carpenter's workshop and wood-storage, and has a small fruit orchard.

Sources: Wikipedia, OpenStreetMap, Wikidata, Wikimedia Commons