Castles possess a mythical quality, with their cloud-piercing turrets, embrasure-indented parapets and pale stone façades coalescing to conjure up images of a fairy-tale backdrop. Apart from the romantic association bestowed on them by Disney, castles served an important historic purpose as a means of military defence against potential attack. Enjoying relative political stability compared to other European nations, fortifications weren’t as necessary in Sweden, hence the country’s castles aren’t as plentiful as Germany’s or France’s. Nevertheless, what the country lacks in quantity, it more than makes up for in quality. Cropping up across the Middle Ages, Sweden’s castles are more fanciful than fortress-like, as if they have in fact been plucked from the pages of a storybook. Add a little bit of magic to your own Scandinavian adventure by visiting one of the best castles in Sweden.
Gripsholm Castle
Springing up from the shores of Lake Mälaren, Gripsholm Castle keeps watch over the pint-sized town of Mariefred in Sweden’s Södermanland County. Built from deep ochre brick in 1537 and surrounded by a sprawling garden, it remained the Swedish Royal Family’s residence until the 18th century. Today, Gripsholm houses the Swedish National Portrait collection (one of the world’s oldest portrait collections) and acts as a museum for a number of other artifacts (including antique handicrafts and 16th-century furniture). A visit here is also worth it for catching a glimpse of the resident wildlife as well as over 500 deer that roam the nearby Hjorthagen nature reserve.
Läckö Castle
Claiming the title of the country with the most islands on the planet (a whopping 221,800 to be exact), Sweden was bound to have a couple of castles dotted about on its various islets. Läckö Castle sits pretty on the island of Kållandsö, which can be reached via a two-hour drive from Gothenburg, making it an ideal day trip from Sweden’s second city. Originally constructed as a fort in 1298, the castle was revamped by Count Magnus Gabriel De la Gardie in 1654 and now boasts 240 rooms, as well as red Baroque-style turrets which complement the castle’s white limestone façade.
Kalmar Castle
Kalmar Castle is one of the more under-the-radar castles in Sweden, found in the dinky town of Kalmar, beside the Baltic Sea in the southeast. Enclosed by a substantial moat, the castle’s history goes back some 800 years and for a long time, it was the country’s most vital fortification due to its strategic location near the Swedish-Danish border. Nicknamed ‘the key to the kingdom’, Kalmar Castle was also the site of the Kalmar Union signing in 1397, a treaty which brought Sweden, Norway and Denmark together under one monarchy. The present-day Renaissance design, complete with pastel-green turrets, was established in the late 1500s and the castle now hosts ghost tours, dungeon visits and various exhibitions showcasing the golden age of the Vasa kings.
Trolleholm Castle
Another green turreted beauty, Trolleholm Castle’s history is similarly colourful. Positioned on Sweden’s southern tip – in the Svalöv Municipality – the castle has undergone a series of stylistic rebrands. Originally called Kattesnabbe upon its construction in the Middle Ages, it was renamed Ericholm during the Renaissance. In 1680, the Trolle family acquired the castle, finally rechristening it ‘Trolleholm’ in 1755. Presently, the privately owned estate comprises 110 structures, across 62,800 acres, and a library which contains over 40,000 books. While you can’t access the buildings, its extensive gardens are open to the public, so you can still live out your royal fantasies in the castle grounds.
Skokloster Castle
A monument to the nation’s heyday as a great European power in the mid-17th century, Skokloster Castle is one the best Baroque castles in Sweden. Built between 1654 and 1676 on the instruction of Count Carl Gustaf Wrangel, the castle was never fully completed following his death in 1676, with the banquet hall still standing unfinished. Subsequent owners filled Skokloster with various fine arts, armoury, textiles and silverware, with the well-preserved edifice becoming a national museum of Swedish cultural history in 1967.
Örebro Castle
Örebro Castle is the crowning glory of Sweden’s sixth-largest city, Örebro, located inland from Lake Hjälmaren, in-between Stockholm and Gothenburg. The oldest part of the castle is thought to date back to the late-1300s, built as a strategic defence at the cross-roads between trade routes to Dalarna and pilgrimage routes to Norway. As the castle grew in size, it also become an important lookout for ensuring contraband wasn’t being transported along the nearby Svartån River. The sturdiness of its round defence towers, topped with slender spires, is offset by the exotic-looking waterlilies which fill the moat.
Written by Luisa Watts
