Sola i Karlstad - the legendary heroine
Outside of Stadshotellet in Karstad she stands there posing. Eva Lisa Holtz – “The Sun of Karlstad” as she is known. The statue was raised in 1985 but the story about the bright, sunny and beautiful Eva Lisa begins much earlier. Text: Mimmi Bladini Illustration: Pauline Wikman
Liza’s three tips for a sunny day in Karlstad Skutberget A lovely area to bathe, BBQ or exercise. There is also a climbing park and a tree-top adventure course. Sandgrundsudden Värmlands Museum is here with its beautiful Museum Park which is perfect to wander around. Visit also Lars Lerin’s art gallery and Stadsbiblioteket – the city library. Vilda Parken I am happy to go here on any sunny day. Vilda Parken is in Väse, just outside Karlstad, and attracts skateboarders just as much as families with children.
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va Lisa Holtz was born 1 January 1793 in Karlstad. She worked for many years as a waitress before opening and running an inn, which was extremely unusual for unmarried women at this time. But that is not why there is a statue of her outside Stadshotellet. Eva Lisa has namely become a symbol of Karlstad, reflecting the city and its people’s reputation for hospitality and positivity. THERE ARE SOME who know a bit
more about the mythical Eva Lisa Holtz than others, and one of them is Liza Ay Hermansson who works as a museum educator at Värmlands Museum. She guides school classes in local history and tells them that no matter what you say about the city’s history, you cannot avoid talking about “Sola i Kallsta”. – If you look at the historical sources, it is hard to know exactly who Eva
Lisa was. What we know is that she lived in Karlstad, remained unmarried and ran an inn. According to myth, she was blonde, happy, beautiful and knew her own mind. She has become attributed with the heroic qualities of what fits our picture of a successful woman, and that’s perhaps why she has become such a symbol, says Liza. EVA LISA HOLTZ has come and gone
over the years. In 1847 the newspaper wrote that the expression “Solen i Karlstad” (The Sun of Karlstad) comes from a famous beauty at one of the city’s inns. About the turn of the century, several different bits of information circulated as to who Sola really was. Some say that she was Louise Linroth, the daughter of a manor owner; others claim that she was a foster child named Carin. In the 1930s historians wrote that Sola was inn-keeper Eva Lisa Holtz; from then on, she alone seems to have kept the moniker.
