A bronze statue of Amalia Eriksson, one of the first woman entrepreneurs in Europe, stands in the heart of Gränna, the town she made famous when she invented and sold the Polkagris candies.
Amalia Eriksson Lundström (1824-1923) became a successful businesswoman because she was alone in the world and had to find a way to support her daughter.
When she was ten, her father, mother, and five siblings died of cholera, and she became a domestic servant. In 1855, Eriksson moved to Gränna with her employers. There, she met Anders Eriksson, a local tailor, and they got married two years later. Soon she was pregnant with twins, but only her daughter survived; she named her Ida. Several days after the delivery, her husband died.
As a widow with a newborn child, she applied for and received special permission from the magistrate to operate a bakery. In 1859, she invented the Polkagris, a red and white stick candy cane, peppermint-flavored.
She called it “Polka” after the polka dance, and Gris meant “pig,” a slang for candy at that time.
It became a huge success, Eriksson became wealthy, and Gränna became famous for the Polkagris.
In 1923, Eriksson passed away, and Ida continued operating the business till her death in 1945. They were buried next to each other at Gränna Cemetery.
Lena Lervik sculptured this statue, featuring Eriksson in traditional clothes, holding a basket inside it, Polkagris; it was dedicated in 1997, standing in front of her house and shop, which became a boutique hotel that bears her name in 2003.
Today more than one million people visit Gränna every year to see and taste Polkagris. They became one of Sweden’s most famous souvenirs.
Every year, on July 25th, Gränna holds the annual world championship in Polkagris making.
In 2022, “Äkta Gränna Polkagrisar” (the Real Gränna Polkagris) became a protected geographical indication and can be manufactured only in Gränna. People of Gränna work round the clock to keep the demand.
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