Rosenbom

[image:Karlskrona Rosenbom.jpg|thumb|Old Rosenbom in front of the church]
[image:Rosenbom replika1956.jpg|thumb|The original inside the church]
In front of the Karlskrona Admiralty Church, in Sweden, the popular wooden figure of Gubben Rosenbom has been standing since the mid 18th century. In 1956 the original was replaced by a copy and put in a safer place inside the church. The life-size figure is actually a poor box, which means, if you lift its hat, you can insert a coin for the poor.
The figure holds a placard in one hand which states in a slightly old-fashioned Swedish:
The last sentence is from the Bible.
The figure of Rosenbom is particularly well-known because it is featured in Selma Lagerlöf's book The Wonderful Adventures of Nils. There, the title hero meets Rosenbom and speaks with him.