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Guest writer: Cornelia Tonéri
My name is Cornelia Tonéri and I run a travel blog. litemerarosa.se with a focus on both short and long journeys and adding a touch of colour to everyday life. Living life a little more pink or whatever colour makes you a little happier.
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ShareIn addition to the travel blog, together with my travel blogger colleague Linda, I run the The round-the-world podcastI work as a content creator for Visit Östergötland and I run the Instagram account. swedish castle guide. Castles are something I am incredibly fascinated by and often visit on my travels.
Therefore, it feels natural that now that I have the honour of being a guest writer here, I write about both castles and my home county of Östergötland. Two real favourites. Follow me around Östergötland on a castle hunt.
Löfstad Castle
We start just off the E4 motorway south of Norrköping. You may already have driven past here many times and seen the pinnacles and towers of Löfstad Castle rising above the treetops. Now we turn in. At Löfstad Castle, time has literally stopped - on 13 December 1926, Miss Emilie Piper, the last owner of the castle, took her last breath in her bed in her bedroom at Löfstad Castle.
The bed still stands today, as does almost everything else in the beautiful castle built by Axel Lilie in the 1630s. Emilie bequeathed the castle to the Östergötland Museum as she had no heirs. And so we can still experience the castle as it was then.
Guided tours are organised throughout the summer. There is an inn in one of the wings and a commercial garden nearby. If you want to visit Emilie Piper's grave, she was laid to rest in Kimstad church just a short distance from Löfstad.
Read more about my visit to Löfstad Castle here
Ruins of Stjärnorp Castle
Another castle that has now seen its glory days but with a strong link to the aforementioned Löfstad Castle is Stjärnorps Castle Ruin. In 1655, the brothers-in-arms Robert Douglas and Axel Lillie who built Löfstad home after the Peace of Westphalia.
They make a promise to each build a castle in Östergötland and they will be so high that it will be possible to wave to each other from the castles. As we know, Axel builds Löfstad. Robert builds Stjärnorps castle. Whether it was possible to wave to each other from them we leave unsaid. What we do know, however, is that Stjärnorp Castle burned in 1789.
While the surrounding buildings are being rebuilt, the castle building is falling into disrepair. Even today it is a ruin well worth a visit. Both to view the ruin itself but also to hike in the ravine that is right next to it. Stjärnorp is located just outside Linköping on the northern bank of the river Roxen.
Read more about the Stjärnorp ruin and ravine here.
Ljungs castle
There is a bit of a family history around several of the castles in Östergötland because here comes the next connection to Löfstad Castle. In the 1770s, Axel von Fersen the elder built Ljungs Castle just outside Linköping and Ljungsbro. Axel was married to Hedvig Catharina De La Gardie, who owned Löfstad Castle. But it seems that this is not enough and of course we give thanks for that today.
Ljungs Castle is open for guided tours during the summer months. The castle is beautifully situated between the Motala stream and the Göta Canal. Over the years it has been used as anything but a castle and the large halls are now largely empty. But the permanent furnishings from the late 18th century are largely untouched.
Ljungs castle I usually call one of Östergötland's most anonymous castles. Not many signs lead there. Nevertheless, it is known from TV4's Det okända where it was investigated by medium Terry Evans. Why not take a trip there and make your own judgement?
Read more about my own feeling I got during my visit here
Linköping Castle
In the centre of Linköping lies one of our oldest castles, in fact Sweden's oldest secular building. But it is somewhat overshadowed by the large cathedral it neighbours. And it hasn't always been a castle either. It began to be built sometime in the 12th century, then as a bishop's residence.
Through guided tours, you can get down into the very oldest parts of the castle and even, if you dare, test the water in the well that was found, which is believed to originate from some kind of medical activity.
Do you dare? Of course I dared.
Over the centuries it has been a castle for royalty, a prison and a residence. Nowadays it is the latter for our governor, but parts of the castle are also part of the Castle and Cathedral Museum.
Read more about one of my visits here
Johannisborg castle ruins
The castle, or perhaps I should say the ruined castle, that has surprised me the most is undoubtedly the ruined castle of Johannisborg in Norrköping. I had seen it in pictures a few times and so one day when I had some time to spare before a meeting, I went hunting.
The GPS took me not far from Norrköping's travel centre into what seemed to be more of an industrial area with a postal terminal and sewage treatment plant. I was pretty sure that I had taken a wrong turn when I turned in but there, in the middle of the warehouses, is the most beautiful of ruins.
The photographers whose pictures I had seen had, like me, immortalised the beautiful old tower that now remains without including the area in which it is located. But I must say that was also part of the charm. The shock of finding a castle ruin right there.
The castle began to be built sometime between 1610 and 1614 by Duke Johan and he is actually still in the picture on the tower if you look really closely. When Norrköping then needed to be rebuilt after a war, it was authorised to take building materials from the dilapidated castle and so it goes. In 1934 the only thing that remains was restored, the gate tower, and there it is. Perhaps Sweden's most misplaced castle ruin?
Read more about Johannisborg Castle ruins here
Husby estate
In another part of Östergötland, just outside Söderköping on the way to the Sankt Anna archipelago, lies Husby Manor. The small castle from 1795 is perhaps best known for being the subject of investigation by Jocke & Jonna and their team. On a couple of occasions they have had the castle to themselves in their search for ghosts.
My friend Linda and I were inspired and booked ourselves into the most haunted suite on a February night in 2020. Never would we have thought that it would turn out that we would also have the castle all to ourselves. But that's what happened and without a team. It was just us in the entire castle and the houses around it. Well, if you don't count the ghosts. The difference between us and Jocke and Jonna is that we actually dared to sleep in the castle. Did we see any ghosts? Maybe we didn't see them. But we can't ignore the traces of them.
Read more about our night alone at Husby Manor here!
Ekenäs Castle
Another truly magnificent castle that has also been visited by both Jocke & Jonna and LaxTon Ghost Sweden in search of the supernatural is Ekenäs. The 17th century castle has the ability to make at least me lose my breath as you approach and see the towers above the treetops.
The castle is open for guided tours during the summer months. In May there are usually knightly games and at Christmas there is a very popular Christmas market. I really recommend taking a guided tour with castle keeper Maria Reuterhagen, who knows her castle and loves to talk about ghosts, gingerbread and history.
Vadstena Castle
Perhaps Östergötland's most famous castle is Vadstena Castle. Vasa Castle on the banks of Lake Vättern is a classic Vasa Castle with four round towers and a moat. Here you can take several different guided tours on different themes. During school holidays, various child-friendly treasure hunts and events are often organised and at Christmas time a cosy Christmas market is held in the castle.
And there we also end our castle road trip. With the flag at the top in beautiful Vadstena.
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Lena+i+Wales+och+Spanien says:
Thank you Cornelia for very interesting post.
I am a bit of a castle nerd and have worked for many years as a guide at Nääs Castle, between Gothenburg and Alingsås.
Of the castles you write about, I have only visited Vadstena. Heard about some of the others, but not visited them. Now I get a little hungry to see more of Östergötland.
Take care!
23 March 2022 - 10:38