It is easy, if not even obvious, to associate Societetshuset  with royalty and top quality maritime practices.

This year the renovated Societetshus stands ready to receive the beautiful people for glittering parties on summer evenings. The crystal chandeliers are magnificent and shimmer as never before. King Oscar II would have enjoyed it.

King Oscar II was bowled over by Adrian Peterson’s pearl -  Societetshuset

Societetshuset was built in 1886 by Adrian Peterson, an architect whose style leaned towards pomp, with wood carving as his signature. The building was financed by Robert and James J. Dickson, industrialists from Gothenburg.

Of course the house was built to appeal to the King, Oscar II, Regent of Sweden and Norway.  Did the king like “his” house? Oh, yes, by all accounts he was bowled over when in 1887 he visited Marstrand for the first time, when the Societetshus scene surely contributed to his visits to Marstrand becoming a tradition. Oscar II returned thereafter to Marstrand for a month every year until his death in 1907. This put Marstrand on the map as a playground for sailing and summer sojourns.

Oscar II was one of Europe’s most educated monarchs and published several books of poems under the name of Oscar Fredrik. The soirees in Societetshuset revolved around the king’s favourite subjects of music and lyrics. Here also took place poetry readings, that sometimes descended into tearful royal pretentiousness.

Societetshuset is a monument to a playful and romantic bathing resort epoch that has shown itself to be attractive even for 21st century guests, both Swedish and foreign.  The house is an important part of the festive life of Marstrand as a whole. To visit “Såsen” is to go back in time and space. The experience is similar, whether you are a King or “ordinary folk”. And surely it’s just as nice not to have to listen to tear-jerking verses in the summer night?