Most of the magnificent Scanian castles were built when Scania was still Danish. Skåne became Swedish only after the peace in Roskilde in 1658 and a majority of the ancient castles – which were then often several hundred years old – have since been rebuilt and expanded. Most in original condition is the sturdy Glimmingehus from 1499, surrounded by rolling fields just outside Simrishamn. One of the youngest is Sofiero, which was ready to move in in 1866 and which has since been expanded several times, beautifully placed among deciduous trees on the slope down to the Sound just north of Helsingborg.
However, most of Skåne’s castles are not open to the public as they are still inhabited. Then you can sometimes just peek in over some stately hedge. But many of these castles also receive visitors in their magnificent gardens, in the farm museum and their own restaurants. A handful of castles have been converted into hotels – such as Bäckaskog’s castle by a lake 20 km east of Kristianstad. It is owned by the state and leased out for hotel and conference operations. The English park is a joy – do not miss to swing out over the lake out on the headland.
Another nice choice is Örenäs Castle, 1.5 km south of Helsingborg. Here guests have a nice view of the Sound, Denmark and the Swedish island of Ven.
Graphics: DN
Krapperup
During the Snapphane feuds, Charles XI ruled Sweden from Krapperup’s castle for a few months, completely normal for a castle that has often been in the middle of important historical events. The most magnificent is the moat-enclosed castle seen from the vast park, where you are met by a red brick facade adorned with large white stars – the coat of arms of the Gyllenstierna family.
You can see the castle inside on guided tours, otherwise you have to make do with the fine farm museum – where the collection of bathtubs and portable toilets fascinates – and the prestigious, association-run art gallery, which is dedicated to a famous artist every summer and in the spring shows younger abilities. Feel free to make a nice coffee stop and buy something delicious from the farm shop.
krapperup.se
Sofiero
Sofiero looks like “a normal German railway station”, states Bengt Inge Johnson dissatisfied in his book Skånska slott och borgar. It was designed by an engineer at Landskrona-Helsingborgs railway and was completed in 1866. The client was Prince Oscar (who became King Oscar II in 1872), who wanted a summer house with a view of the Sound.
If the castle is not remarkable, the gardens are all the finer: They were created by Gustaf VI Adolf and his first wife Margareta (who died in 1920) and second wife Louise. After the king’s death in 1973, Helsingborg municipality took over and opened the castle to everyone. The garden is superb and most famous is the rhododendron ravine. In the middle of summer, they have bloomed while the rose garden, the anniversary garden, the kitchen gardens and all the dahlias are at their finest.
In the castle there is an exhibition about the life of royalty, a fine restaurant and a café. In the Orangery another superb restaurant – try the gourmet pizzas!
sofiero.se
The citadel in Landskrona
The citadel in Landskrona is the castle that barely had time to be a castle before it was rebuilt. It was started by the Danish king Cristian III in 1549. Built by farmers who were forced to work for free four days a week. But the king died before the castle was ready and soon it was rebuilt into the best fortified castle in the Nordic countries. The extension became so heavy that a meter-thick retaining wall had to be inserted straight through the castle’s parade hall.
It began to be used as a prison in the 18th century and the moisture-dripping, cold dungeon that few came alive from still frightens today. In 1902, the citadel became a women’s prison with 32 cells, built according to the Philadelphia model, which was state-of-the-art at the time. The military used the citadel during World War II and it was not until 1958 that it opened to the public.
landskronaslott.se
Bosjökloster
The monastic life was probably inflated in the 12th century, but the nuns at Bosjökloster lived at least beautifully by Ringsjön in the middle of Skåne. The monastery received many generous donations and was rich when the state seized all Catholic property and gradually liquidated the monastery during the Reformation in the 16th century.
Today you can compare Bosjökloster to a large yummy cream cake, brilliant white, embedded in magnificent rose beds. At the far end of the property, curious alpacas thrive and a bunch of goats can be petted in a fence.
But above all, Bosjökloster offers fine exhibitions. Partly a permanent one about monastic life, partly several different art exhibitions every summer. You can stay here for hours. Then it is good that there is an excellent restaurant in the castle – with far more delicious food than the one that the nuns ate once upon a time.
bosjokloster.se
Svaneholm
Svaneholm is teeming with ghosts if you are to believe all the stories that have been told since the magnificent castle was built in the 16th century. Ghosts were occasionally seen so often that when a visitor in the 1890s told the owner that he had just met the black wife in a corridor, he replied “Well, she, I have thrown many boots at her”.
A real person who more than anyone else has shaped Svaneholm is Rutger Macklean. The agricultural, building, school and social reformer lived here 1782–1816.
Today, the association-owned castle is open for visits, each floor is filled with museum objects – from exclusive 18th century clothes to an entire country store. But most still touch on the stories of those who worked at the bottom of the castle hierarchy – like the milkmaids who were forced to toil without any compensation at all.
svaneholmsslott.se
Glimmingehus
In a writing from 1515, the abbess at Vadstena monastery asks that the children of the Danish county governor Jens Holgersen not be the same as his father. Holgersen’s reputation as cruel and unreasonable had spread far beyond Denmark’s then borders, including after his brutal advance on Gotland and as a hijacker at sea.
Jens Holgersen started building Glimmingehus in 1499 as a home for himself and his Swedish wife Margareta Arvidsdotter. Today, it is the Nordic region’s best-preserved medieval castle and still gives a brutal impression with its gray stone façade.
Inside there are a handful of fine reliefs preserved, baking ovens and the toilet, which of course hung outside the stone wall so that everything would end up directly in the moat. In an adjacent house there is a good overview of Glimmingehus history.
raa.se
Wanås
Wanås Castle is beautiful, but private residence like so many other Scanian castles. The surroundings – barns, park and deciduous forest around the castle – are open for visits and house one of Sweden’s best sculpture parks with almost 80 permanent works and several temporary summer exhibitions. Hear the cries of mother in Marianne Lindberg De Geer’s sound art work “I think of myself”, wish something at Yoko Ono’s “Wish trees for Wanås”, think about what the red balls in the trees mean in Anne Thulin’s work “Double dribble”, be happy by or upset by “Fideicommissum” – Ann-Sofi Sidén’s depiction of herself in full figure peeing in the grass next to the nice pond with the white castle in the background. And do not miss Ann Hamilton’s “Lignum” which takes up all the floors in a large barn.
The forest offers constant surprises so keep your eyes open! The sculpture park in Wanås is open all year round.
wanas.se
Hovdala
Hovadala is the castle you combine with hiking in the hilly landscape with its lakes, fields, oak and beech forests. Here is a plethora of full and half day tours that all start at the castle.
Hovdala was built as a castle in the border areas with Sweden and saw many fierce battles. The castle was burned down during the Snapphane feuds in 1678, but was rebuilt three years later. Today, it is as if time has stood still, as the changes that took place on other farms after the Second World War never got off here, as the military took over and used the area as an armored exercise area.
Take a guided tour and see moats, expensive antique wallpaper and the small cold and draughty room where the castle’s last inhabitants, two unmarried sisters, lived until the 1980s. Next to the castle there is a garden and an orangery that are popular to get married in.
hovdala.se
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