Wik Castle: Medieval Fortress and Historic Estate in Sweden
Site at a Glance
- Rating
- 4.3
- Popularity
- Medium
- Country
- Sweden
- Primary era
- Medieval
- External website
- Open
- Eras represented
- Medieval, Early Modern, Modern
- Civilizations
- Swedish
- Site type
- Military
- Remains
- Castle
On this page13 sections
History
Wik Castle is a historic fortified estate in Sweden, located in Uppsala Municipality beside Lårstaviken, an inlet of Lake Ekoln in Lake Mälaren. The estate developed from a medieval residence into a fifteenth-century fortress, and its history is associated with several prominent Swedish noble families, the 1521 siege by Gustav Vasa, and later educational and cultural uses.
Medieval estate and fortress
The estate is first associated with the lawman Israel Andreasson, a senior legal official who presided over a provincial law court in medieval Sweden. He died in 1289. Vik, also written Wik or Wijk in older Swedish spelling, was recorded as Vihc in 1303, when it belonged to his daughter Ramborg Israelsdotter. In 1315 it was held by her husband, Arvid Gustavsson of the Sparre of Vik family. Arvid was killed at the Nyköping Banquet in 1317.
Through the inheritance of their grandson’s daughter and her husband, the estate passed into the Bielke family’s possession around 1380. The fortified castle was built during the Bielke period, probably around 1450. It was originally constructed as a fortified castle or large tower house, using stone and brick.
The sixteenth to eighteenth centuries
Nils Klausson of the Sparre of Ellinge family lived at Vik from the 1470s, followed by his son Knut Nilsson from 1505. In 1521, Gustav Vasa besieged the small fortified house at Vik, which Knut Nilsson defended. The siege lasted more than a year and took place during the conflict that preceded Gustav Vasa’s accession to the Swedish throne. He ruled from 1523 to 1560 and founded the Vasa dynasty.
In 1638, the estate was inherited by the 18-year-old Sigrid Bielke and her husband Gustaf Horn af Björneborg. Horn was a Swedish nobleman and military commander who also served as a privy councillor, a member of the king’s advisory council, and governor-general of Livonia, a large territory administered on behalf of the crown.
During the 1670s, the fortress was modernized internally. Wooden wings were added, and a park was laid out under the architect Mathias Spihler. Through later descendants, the property passed by marriage to the marshal of the realm Hans Henric von Essen, and then to Gustaf Adolf Fredrik Wilhelm von Essen and his family. The estate remained with that family for 124 years. Before its first sale in 1912, it had passed through inheritance across 24 generations over more than 600 years.
Restoration and modern institutional history
Fredrik Wilhelm Scholander restored the castle between 1858 and 1860, establishing the exterior appearance seen today. Scholander was a nineteenth-century Swedish architect and professor, and further nineteenth-century renovation work followed his plans.
The banker Alfred Berg acquired the estate in 1912. After his death, it was purchased by the journalist Carl Sigfrid Dahlin, owner of the scandal newspaper Fäderneslandet. Dahlin sold the property in 1923, after one year of ownership, to Uppsala County Council for the same purchase price. The council established a folk high school there, an adult-education institution focused on general and civic education rather than conventional degrees.
Wik Castle became a Swedish listed historic building in 1982 and is owned by Region Uppsala. It was the birthplace of Svante Arrhenius, the Swedish physical chemist who received the 1903 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for work associated with chemical dissociation theory. In 1973 and 1974, the castle interiors were used to record Antik Musik På Wik, an album of medieval and Renaissance music performed by the period-music ensemble Joculatores Upsalienses and published by the Swedish label BIS in 1974. The estate continues to accommodate the folk high school, while the castle is also used as a conference, course, cultural, and activities centre.
Remains
The fortified castle
Castle structure
The principal building is a substantial fifteenth-century fortified castle or tower house made mainly of stone and brick. It rises seven storeys above the entrance level, with three further storeys below it. The structure reflects the defensive character of the original building, while later alterations changed its internal arrangement and exterior appearance.
Knights’ Hall
The Knights’ Hall lies two flights of stairs above the entrance floor. Its interior dates from the restoration of 1858 to 1860, linking one of the castle’s principal rooms with the nineteenth-century transformation directed by Fredrik Wilhelm Scholander.
Park and estate buildings
Natural park
An extensive natural park surrounds the castle and extends along the northern shore of Lårstaviken. It includes paths, information posts, and a hazel grove, forming part of the wider historic estate landscape.
Stone House
The Stone House stands in the castle courtyard. Its central section was built by the estate owner in 1751 as a residence for himself and his family. Two wings were added in 1823 to designs by the architect Carl Christoffer Gjörwell the Younger, giving the courtyard building its later form.
Tengbom’s outbuilding range
Tengbom’s outbuilding range is a wooden structure from the 1910s. It stands some distance from the castle and was designed by the architect Ivar Tengbom. The building is used by the folk high school.
Rector’s villa
The folk high school’s rector’s villa was built in 1953 to designs by Artur von Schmalensee. It forms part of the group of historically valuable buildings and structures that developed around the castle after the estate entered institutional use.
