Category: Castle of the month

The castle of the month of July – Stockholm.

My American sister and her youngest daughter came for a visit so we went to see the changing of the guards and the music parade at the Royal Castle. It was a very warm sunny day but fun to experience this event on site. 

The castle Tre Kronor was first build in the 13th century but it was completely destroyed in a fire in 1697. Due to the great Nordic wars, it took until 1754 before the castle was restored and ready for new residents when King Adolf Fredrik and Queen Lovisa Ulrika moved in. 

The castle has 1430 rooms of which 660 has windows. It is 42000m² large and the castle and the royal family has been guarded by Högvakten – the Main Guard – since 1523. Our present royal family has their residence at Drottningholm but they host a lot of representation events at the castle, such as meetings with the government, gala dinners, Nobel price winners, big announcements etc.

The castle is open to the public and contains a number of museums. For instance, you can visit the Royal Treasury museum, The Royal Armoury museum (the oldest museum in Sweden btw), The Tre Kronor museum and The Royal church as well as guided tours of some parts of the castle itself. A tour well worth a visit.  

Today we gave M and his friend a ride to their friend’s wedding in Edsbro outside of Norrtälje. After dropping them off, we went to Älmsta for lunch at Ankaret. Then, on the way back we stopped at our choice of castle of the month on June – Ekebyholm, Rimbo.

The property origins back from the 15th century, The main building was built in the early 1600s. In the castle is a room called “Kungsrummet” – the king’s room – which was named after King Fredrik I who supposedly spent time here with his mistress Catharina Ebba Horn, owner of the castle 1746-52. It is decorated in a rokoko-style and is still preserved the same way.

Today the castle is a private boarding school with Christian objectives.

Tonight we are invited to dinner at my sister’s together with two other friends. A great day with a great ending!

During our visit to Amsterdam we visited the Royal Palace, which stands in the middle of the capital at the Dam Square and is King Willem-Alexander’s official reception palace.

It was completed in 1656 and was originally the city hall. It became an international attraction for foreign visitors due to the big collections of art (e.g. The Night Watch by Rembrandt). The Palace plays a major role during state visits, but also other royal occasions, such as New Year’s receptions, gala dinners and award ceremonies.

The day after we flew back to Stockholm it was the official King’s Day in the Netherlands and when we were by the castle it was sealed off due to a representation event. Tons of fancy cars with dark windows arrived – each carrying someone rich and/or famous in fancy costumes / dresses.

So, even though the Royal Palace is open to visitors as much as possible, during our visit it was closed to the public. But usually it is a living building where you can follow in the footsteps of royal guests through its imposing rooms and halls.

Since we spent the weekend in Salzburg, Austria, we chose the castle of the month of February to be the Mirabell Palace.

The archbishop Raitenau built the castle in 1606 and it was initially named Schloss Altenau. His successor Mark Sittich gave the palace its current name from Italian: mirabile, bella: “amazing”, “wonderful”.

The palace is, together with its garden, listed a cultural heritage and part of the UNESCO World Heritage Site.

The Marble Hall in the palace hosts concerts and venues. It is also a popular location for weddings.

The palace is now owned by the city of Salzburg and is being used as the mayor’s office and several municipal departments. It is situated right by the Salzach river and the Hohensalzburg Fortress is overlooking it from the hill.

The first castle of the month this year – Ljunglöfska Slottet, in Bromma.

“When Knut Fredrik Ljunglöf (1833-1920) took over his father’s tobacco business in 1860 the property was valued to 850 000 old Swedish crowns. At the end of the 19th century, tobacco and wet snuff (Swedish snuff characteristically has a high degree of moisture) were manufactured by his firm. His success resulted in his concern becoming one of Sweden’s largest snuff and the Europe second largest tobacco business. Like many of the rich and well-to-do people, Ljunglöf left the city during the summer months. Since he already owned much of the western suburbs of Stockholm, he chose to erect a large villa there, on the shores of Lake Mälaren. Later on the villa came to be known as “slottet” (“the palace”). This colonial Portuguese-Spanish style mansion with natural stone ornamentation was finished in 1893 having taken four years to complete. Surrounding the mansion is a beautiful garden with fountains and trees such as cypress, “blood beach” and silver fir.” (text borrowed from their website)

It was a lovely day when we arrived in Bromma, but shortly after it started to snow really bad so we decided to return home. Made it back without any problems. Now it is snowing heavily so the afternoon will be spent in the comfort of our corners watching series.