Skånelaholm Castle ( sv, Skånelaholms slott) is a castle in

Sigtuna Municipality Sigtuna Municipality (''Sigtuna kommun'') is a municipality in Stockholm County in east central Sweden. Its seat is located in the town of Märsta, approximately north of the Swedish capital, Stockholm. The municipality is a part of Metropolita ...

Stockholm County Stockholm County ( sv, Stockholms län, link=no ) is a county or '' län'' (in Swedish) on the Baltic Sea coast of Sweden. It borders Uppsala County and Södermanland County. It also borders Mälaren and the Baltic Sea. The city of Stoc ...

, Sweden.

History

Skånelaholm lies in a very old

cultural landscape Cultural landscape is a term used in the fields of geography, ecology, and heritage studies, to describe a symbiosis of human activity and environment. As defined by the World Heritage Committee, it is the "cultural properties hatrepresent the ...

and may have been a

crown estate The Crown Estate is a collection of lands and holdings in the United Kingdom belonging to the British monarch as a corporation sole, making it "the sovereign's public estate", which is neither government property nor part of the monarch's priv ...

manor during the early

Middle Ages In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire ...

. The estate is mentioned for the first time in written sources in 1276, when it was sold by King Magnus III to Sko Abbey, a monastery at the site of present-day

Skokloster Castle Skokloster Castle ( sv, Skoklosters slott) is a Swedish Baroque castle built between 1654 and 1676 by Carl Gustaf Wrangel, located on a peninsula of Lake Mälaren between Stockholm and Uppsala. It became a state museum in the 1970s and displays ...

. It remained in the possession of the abbey until the

Reformation The Reformation (alternatively named the Protestant Reformation or the European Reformation) was a major movement within Western Christianity in 16th-century Europe that posed a religious and political challenge to the Catholic Church and i ...

, when it was confiscated by King

Gustav Vasa Gustav I, born Gustav Eriksson of the Vasa noble family and later known as Gustav Vasa (12 May 1496 – 29 September 1560), was King of Sweden from 1523 until his death in 1560, previously self-recognised Protector of the Realm ('' Riksför ...

. It thereafter was a crown estate manor for a long time. In 1618 it was let to Johan Patkull, a nobleman of

Livonia Livonia ( liv, Līvõmō, et, Liivimaa, fi, Liivinmaa, German and Scandinavian languages: ', archaic German: ''Liefland'', nl, Lijfland, Latvian and lt, Livonija, pl, Inflanty, archaic English: ''Livland'', ''Liwlandia''; russian: Ли ...

n extraction in service of the Swedish king (not to be confused with the more notorious

Johann Patkul Johann Reinhold Patkul (27 July 1660 – 10 October 1707) was a Livonian nobleman, politician and agitator of Baltic German extraction. Born as a subject to the Swedish Crown, he protested against the manner of King Charles XI of Sweden's re ...

). The estate however remained the property of the crown until 1641 when it was bought by Andreas Gyldenklou, who built the presently visible main building. It stayed in the Gyldenklou family until the 1690s, after which the estate changed ownership several times until 1742, when it was acquired by Frans Jennings. Jennings was born on

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...

but settled in Sweden and made a large fortune as a merchant in Stockholm. He was made a member of the

Swedish nobility The Swedish nobility ( sv, Adeln eller Ridderskapet och Adeln) has historically been a legally and/or socially privileged class in Sweden, and part of the so-called ''frälse'' (a derivation from Old Swedish meaning ''free neck''). The archaic ter ...

in 1742 and made Skånelaholm Castle the seat of his family. It stayed in the

Jennings family Jennings is a surname of early medieval English origin (also the Anglicised version of the Irish surnames Mac Sheóinín or MacJonin). Notable people with the surname include: *Jennings (Swedish noble family) A–G *Adam Jennings (born 1982), A ...

until 1918. The last private owner of the estate was Herbert and Ing-Marie Rettig, who donated the castle to the

Royal Swedish Academy of Letters, History and Antiquities The Royal Swedish Academy of Letters, History and Antiquities also called simply the Royal Academy of Letters or Vitterhetsakademin abbreviated KVHAA ( sv, Kungl. Vitterhetsakademien Historie och Antikvitets Akademien or or ) is the Swedish royal ...

in order to preserve it. Today, the academy owns and administers the estate.

Architecture

The castle was probably built in 1639–1643 and is in a German-Dutch late

Renaissance style Renaissance architecture is the European architecture of the period between the early 15th and early 16th centuries in different regions, demonstrating a conscious revival and development of certain elements of ancient Greek and Roman thought ...

. It is built of brick, but during a renovation in the 1890s the facade was covered in

stucco Stucco or render is a construction material made of aggregates, a binder, and water. Stucco is applied wet and hardens to a very dense solid. It is used as a decorative coating for walls and ceilings, exterior walls, and as a sculptural and a ...

and the building attained its present ornate decoration, as well as its present colour. It lies on a peninsula in a small lake, Lake Fysingen, and is surrounded by a park. The park was probably laid out in the 18th century and transformed into an

English landscape garden The English landscape garden, also called English landscape park or simply the English garden (french: Jardin à l'anglaise, it, Giardino all'inglese, german: Englischer Landschaftsgarten, pt, Jardim inglês, es, Jardín inglés), is a sty ...

during the 19th century. The main building is flanked by four low wings, built during the middle of the 18th century. The castle contains many preserved historical interiors. The first floor was the main representative floor and contains the dining room, a room of 17th-century character, and a

Rococo Rococo (, also ), less commonly Roccoco or Late Baroque, is an exceptionally ornamental and theatrical style of architecture, art and decoration which combines asymmetry, scrolling curves, gilding, white and pastel colours, sculpted moulding, ...

drawing-room with paintings in the style of

François Boucher François Boucher ( , ; ; 29 September 1703 – 30 May 1770) was a French painter, draughtsman and etcher, who worked in the Rococo style. Boucher is known for his idyllic and voluptuous paintings on classical themes, decorative allegories ...

, possibly painted by

Guillaume Taraval Guillaume Thomas Taraval (21 December 1701 – April 1750) was a French born, Swedish painter. Biography Guillaume Thomas Raphaël Taraval was born in France, the son of François Taraval and Chatherine Masson. He became orphaned early in li ...

. The second floor contains the large

library A library is a collection of materials, books or media that are accessible for use and not just for display purposes. A library provides physical (hard copies) or digital access (soft copies) materials, and may be a physical location or a vi ...

and another drawing-room, called the "blue drawing-room". It contains

Empire style The Empire style (, ''style Empire'') is an early-nineteenth-century design movement in architecture, furniture, other decorative arts, and the visual arts, representing the second phase of Neoclassicism. It flourished between 1800 and 1815 dur ...

furniture, possibly made in

Venice Venice ( ; it, Venezia ; vec, Venesia or ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto region. It is built on a group of 118 small islands that are separated by canals and linked by over 400 bridges. The isla ...

Overview

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Skanelaholm Castle Castles in Stockholm County

History

Architecture

Overview

See also

References

External links