Alnarp Castle ( sv, Alnarps slott) is located in Alnarp,

Lomma Municipality Lomma Municipality ( sv, Lomma kommun) is a municipality in Skåne County in southern Sweden, about 10 km north of Malmö. Its seat is located in Lomma with secondary locality Bjärred being of almost equal population size. The present m ...

Scania Scania, also known by its native name of Skåne (, ), is the southernmost of the historical provinces (''landskap'') of Sweden. Located in the south tip of the geographical region of Götaland, the province is roughly conterminous with Skå ...

, approximately 10 km north of Malmö in southern Sweden. The original castle on the property was built in the 12th century. The present building was erected in 1862, in French

Renaissance The Renaissance ( , ) , from , with the same meanings. is a period in European history marking the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and covering the 15th and 16th centuries, characterized by an effort to revive and surpass id ...

style.

History

The castle was first mentioned in the 12th century. In 1325 Alnarp came into the possession of a knight named Anders Pedersen, and then Aage Nielsen Ulfeldt in the early 15th century. In 1449, Alnarp passed into the ownership of

Niels Stigsen Thott Niels is a male given name, equivalent to Nicholas, which is common in Denmark, Belgium, Norway (formerly) and the Netherlands. The Norwegian and Swedish variant is Nils. The name is a developed short form of Nicholas or Greek Nicolaos after Saint ...

. The Ulfeldt and the Thott families were members of the Scanian nobility. The castle eventually passed to the Krummedige family, and in 1500 it was owned by Erik Krummedige, a cousin of

Henrik Krummedige Henrich Krummedige (also recorded as Hinrik, Henrik or Henry with surname variations including Krummedike and Krummendiek), was born circa 1464 in Norway and died in 1530. He was a Danish-Norwegian nobleman and a member of both the Norwegian and ...

, and an advisor to the Danish king. In 1536,

Christian III Christian III (12 August 1503 – 1 January 1559) reigned as King of Denmark from 1534 and King of Norway from 1537 until his death in 1559. During his reign, Christian formed close ties between the church and the crown. He established ...

took possession of the castle for the Danish state. After the

Treaty of Roskilde The Treaty of Roskilde (concluded on 26 February ( OS), or 8 March 1658) ( NS) during the Second Northern War between Frederick III of Denmark–Norway and Karl X Gustav of Sweden in the Danish city of Roskilde. After a devastating defeat, ...

in 1658, king

Charles X Gustav of Sweden Charles X Gustav, also Carl Gustav ( sv, Karl X Gustav; 8 November 1622 – 13 February 1660), was King of Sweden from 1654 until his death. He was the son of John Casimir, Count Palatine of Zweibrücken-Kleeburg and Catherine of Sweden. Afte ...

gave the castle to a

commandant Commandant ( or ) is a title often given to the officer in charge of a military (or other uniformed service) training establishment or academy. This usage is common in English-speaking nations. In some countries it may be a military or police ran ...

of Malmö, Johan von Essen. In 1660,

Charles XI Charles XI or Carl ( sv, Karl XI; ) was King of Sweden from 1660 until his death, in a period of Swedish history known as the Swedish Empire (1611–1721). He was the only son of King Charles X Gustav of Sweden and Hedwig Eleonora of Holstein ...

gave it to Gabriel Oxenstierna. From 1694, it became the residence for the

Governors-General of Sweden A Governor-General ( sv, generalguvernör) was appointed by the Swedish monarch as his permanent representative, with both civil and military jurisdiction, over parts of Sweden, from the 17th century to the early 19th century, when constitutional ...

in Scania.

Today

Today the castle houses offices and meeting rooms used by the

Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences The Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, or Swedish Agricultural University (Swedish: ''Sveriges lantbruksuniversitet'') (SLU) is a university in Sweden. Although its head office is located in Ultuna, Uppsala, the university has several ...

. The castle park has the second greatest variety of trees in Sweden and is open to the public year-round.

References

*Åkesson, Sylve
Skånska slott och herresäten: Alnarp
Retrieved 18 January 2007.

External links

Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences – Alnarp
– Official site {{Castles in Scania Houses completed in 1862 Castles in Skåne County 1862 establishments in Sweden 19th-century establishments in Skåne County