Fejan

Lat: N 59º 44' 00"
Long: E 19º 10' 00"

Fejan is a half an hour boat ride from Räfsnäs pier at Kapellskär in the northern Archipelago. While the island is rather small, just over 1.5 km in length from north to south, its history is very special and, at times, dramatic. At the end of the 19th century a quarantine station was established to stop the cholera epidemic that was raging through Europe and most of the houses have names that relate back to those times.

The island now boasts a well-developed archipelago centre, a good inn with conference facilities, a hostel, a large guest harbour and rental of canoes and rowing boats for discovering the beautiful surroundings and local archipelago. There is a popular Oktoberfest in the autumn and from Advent Sunday we serve a generous Christmas smorgasbord.

Since the 1960s, thousands of young people from Stockholm have spent summers here on the Navy Home Reserve sailing camps. Fejan Aktivitet & Seglarläger (activity and sailing camps), a private organisation, took over this business and now cater for children from 8-15 years old and also for companies and groups who want to learn more about the noble art of sailing.

- Kongo, a former doctor's house that originally should have been sent to Congo but was built on Fejan instead. The architecture is unusual. It is now part of the inn on Fejan.

- The open sea stretches eastwards from Fejan. The nearest land in this direction is Åland.

How to get there
You can take the Waxholmsbolaget ferry or boat taxi from Räfsnäs Brygga. The boat trip takes about 25 minutes. You can take SL bus 631 from Norrtälje to Räfsnäs Brygga. By car drive E18 from Norrtälje towards Kapellskär. Turn left towards Räfsnäs-Gräddö.

Food
Fejans Krog
Café at the hostel

Accommodation

Hostel with 55 beds, open from 20th June - 16th August. Available for groups and conferences during the rest of the year.
Fejans Krog & Konferens (inn with conference facilities) on the north east side of the island.
Cottage rental

Shopping
Groceries and agent for apoteket (pharmacy) and the post office on nearby Tjockö.

Fejans Sjötransport och Rökeri

Guest Harbour
On the north eastern coast. 30-40 berths, toilet, telephone, shower and sauna

Nature on Fejan is beautiful and varied. The larger island of Tjockö lies to the west. To the east of Fejan are the outer archipelago and the open sea to Åland to the northeast.

The first inhabitants of Fejan were farmers who moved here from the neighbouring island of Tjockö in the middle of the 19^th century. During the great cholera epidemic at the end of that century, when 60 million people are estimated to have died in Europe, including 40 000 in Sweden, a quarantine station was established here for vessels travelling from Finland and Russia. Clearly the station did its job as the feared disease never reached the Swedish capital and just four deaths from Fejan were reported during the summer of 1894. The quarantine buildings are still to be found on the island.

The boathouse was once a clinic for post-mortems but now houses the inn. The house, Wasa, which got its name from a cholera infected steam boat, which was kept in quarantine, is now a hostel. Possibly the most interesting story is that of the former doctor's house, Kongo, with it's unusual architecture. The name comes from the fact that it was built to be transported to a missionary post in Congo when it was expropriated by the navy and built on Fejan instead. It is now part of Fejans Krog.

After the Second World War the island was used as a camp for some of the 30 000 Estonians who fled from the invading Soviet army and ended up in the northern archipelago in their small boats.

The navy used the old quarantine station as a school for the Navy Home Reserve until the end of the 1970s. Most of the buildings were in such poor condition that when the Archipelago Foundation took over responsibility for the island in 1994, they had to rebuild most of them from scratch.