Nº26 El caballo dalecarlia
The Swedish Dala horse (Dalahäst) is a traditional, carved and painted wooden statue of a horse, a symbol of good fortune. Every Swedish home has at least one.
It originates from the time that forest people in the province of Dalarna carved out toys and animals for their children, using offcuts of their production. The horses grew to be popular and in the 18th century, people started to decorate them and sell. But it was not until a century later that people started to paint the horses with a special technique with two colours on the same brush.
In the 1930s Sweden introduced the Dala horse at the World Expo in Paris and the World’s Fair in New York. It was then when the horse outgrew his role as simply a toy into a national symbol of Sweden.
Today, you can find versions of the Dala horse in souvenir shops but if you prefer the real thing you are in luck, the authentic Dala horse is still made in Dalarna, hand-carved and painted with hand.
