Gamla Lasarettet (Old Hospital)

West of town is the oldest preserved section of buildings from the 18th and 19th centuries. On Storgatan is the old hospital, a wooden structure built in 1784–85 as a single-story building, with a second floor added in 1863. The hospital setting includes a panelled, red-coloured pavilion for patients dating back to 1866, an 1895–97 surgery room with plastered facades and the park surrounding the buildings. More recently Lerstenen AB, the company that owns all the buildings on the hospital grounds, erected a residential and office building on the riverbank designed by renowned Architect Tomas Sandell. Västra kyrkogården (Western Cemetery) is the oldest surviving cemetery in the city today. It served as a hospital cemetery and became the official cemetery in 1815, when the cemetery at Stadkyrkan (Town Church) was discontinued. The chapel dates to 1885. The cemetery, burial place for many former Umeå residents, has distinctive old gravestones, a wrought-iron fence, raked pathways and large shade trees. Flanking the cemetery are two small parks recently named after two writers, Astrid Väring and Lars Widding, who described the lives of city residents in their books and who are buried in Västra kyrkogården.