The "Backstuga" of Petter Månstävan

Here you can see the remains of the hillside cottage "Backstuga" where Petter Månstävan lived, probably in the 19th century. The cottage is located along the old Häradsvägen between Älmeboda and Korrö and was originally 10 meters long and 7 meters wide with a cellar underneath. To be called a hillside cottage, the house was relatively large as classic hillside cottages were often considerably smaller, not infrequently 20 – 25 square meters. Usually these were simply built where one long side was dug into a hillside, preferably facing south to take advantage of the earth's heat and the sun's warming rays. Petter Månstävan's mountain cabin was located on the farm Stenvärmsholm owned on land that could not be used for anything else. During searches, the home village association has found historical documents that show that Petter Månstävans had access to pastures. In contrast to crofter families "Torpare" , cottagers did not have to work a day's work and did not have to pay taxes either. The term hillside cottage has been used ever since the 17th century, but it was only in the 19th century that the hill cottage dwellers were separated from crofters in the church registers. Most hillside cottages were built on commons, i.e. land that belonged to the parish, and the hillside cottage sitter was thus not directly subordinate to the farmer in the same way as the crofter. There was often a lack of arable land for the cottage, and in the cases where it was possible to cultivate, the area was very small. On the other hand, there was often a small garden area, a so-called cabbage garden where you could grow cabbage, root vegetables and potatoes.