Borgholm Castle: A Swedish Fortress and Unfinished Baroque Palace
Site at a Glance
- Rating
- 4.5
- Popularity
- Medium
- Country
- Sweden
- Primary era
- Early Modern
- External website
- Open
- Eras represented
- Medieval, Early Modern
- Civilizations
- Swedish
- Site type
- Military
- Remains
- Castle
On this page12 sections
History
Borgholm Castle is a fortified castle in Sweden that developed from a twelfth-century stronghold into a Renaissance castle and an unfinished Baroque palace. Its position on Öland, beside the sea routes between northern and southern Scandinavia, gave it military importance in controlling the Kalmar Strait, the island, and approaches toward Gotland and the Baltic.
Origins and medieval expansion
The earliest fortification probably dates from the second half of the twelfth century and is traditionally associated with King Knut I of Sweden, also known as Knut Eriksson, who ruled from 1167 to 1195. That attribution remains uncertain. By the end of the twelfth century, a powerful limestone tower had been built and was soon enclosed by a ring wall. Borgholm is first mentioned in a document from 1268.
The fortification was strengthened during the period of Birger Jarl, a leading Swedish statesman and the kingdom’s de facto ruler in the mid-thirteenth century. Expansion continued through the later thirteenth century, and the castle was probably complete by 1281. In 1307, Borgholm and the whole of Öland passed to King Birger Magnusson. Duke Valdemar Magnusson moved into the castle in 1316 with his wife, Ingeborg Eriksdotter of Norway. After the Nyköping Banquet, Ingeborg remained there until her death in 1356, issuing documents from Borgholm in 1345 and 1346.
Contested control in the Middle Ages
King Valdemar IV of Denmark attacked Borgholm in 1361, bringing the castle under Danish control. Öland was pledged to the Hanseatic League, a trading and political association of northern European towns, from 1362 to 1366. The fortifications were then strengthened, probably during the reign of Albert of Sweden. Across the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, Borgholm repeatedly changed between Danish and Swedish control.
The castle was held or administered at different times by Albert of Mecklenburg, Eric of Pomerania, Nils Jönsson Oxenstierna, Magnus Gren, Eric Eriksen Gyldenstierne, Charles VIII of Sweden, Ivar Axelsson Tott, Arvid Birgersson Trolle, Sten Sture the Elder, and Sten Sture the Younger. In 1440, Charles Knutsson besieged Borgholm, then held by Magnus Gren, and secured the castle and county after its capitulation. Danish forces captured it again in 1456 and took Eric Eriksen Gyldenstierne prisoner.
Ivar Axelsson Tott held Borgholm from 1483 to 1487. Sten Sture the Elder besieged the castle in 1487 because of Ivar’s piracy in the Baltic. Ivar escaped during the night, leaving the defence to his wife, Magdalena Karlsdotter Bonde. An agreement between Sten Sture and King Hans required the couple to surrender the castle while allowing them to remove their personal property.
The final medieval campaigns
In 1510, Eric Abrahamsson Leijonhufvud and Hemming Gadh, Bishop of Linköping, took part in an eighteen-week siege that forced the Danish commander Knud Rud to surrender Borgholm and Öland. Sten Sture the Younger held the castle again in 1513. Staffan Weberstein received Öland as a fief in 1519, but was later deposed and executed. That same year, the Danish admiral Søren Norby captured Borgholm and received Öland as a fief from King Christian II.
Swedish forces regained control of Öland in 1522 and 1523 during Gustav Vasa’s uprising. Gustav Vasa established the Vasa dynasty and, after the medieval castle had been destroyed, built a nearby residence known as Vasahuset rather than immediately rebuilding the fortress. Borgholm returned to Sweden after the end of the Kalmar Union, the political union that placed Denmark, Norway, and Sweden under one monarchy from 1397.
Renaissance reconstruction and the Kalmar War
Gustav Vasa’s son, King Johan III, ordered Borgholm’s reconstruction in 1572. Johan Baptista Pahr and later his brother Dominicus Pahr directed the work, transforming the site into a Renaissance castle and one of Sweden’s early bastion fortresses. A bastion fortress uses projecting defensive works to allow fire along the faces of its walls. The reconstruction retained a strongly military character while also providing royal apartments.
Borgholm became a major position during the Kalmar War, the conflict between Sweden and Denmark from 1611 to 1613. Danish forces captured the castle in August 1611, but Swedish forces commanded by the future King Gustav II Adolf, later known as Gustavus Adolphus, retook it in September and October with about 2,000 men. Peder Mikaelsson Hammarskjöld became commander and strengthened the island’s defences.
In June 1612, Danish forces under Gert Rantzau bombarded Borgholm for nine days, after which Hammarskjöld surrendered. Sweden recovered the castle through the Treaty of Knäred in 1613, the peace settlement that ended the war. The fighting left Borgholm severely damaged. Swedish forces also destroyed the nearby church because they feared Danish troops would use it as a refuge.
Baroque palace, decline, and fire
Repairs began after the war but stopped after roughly a decade. A small earthwork was added in 1643. During the middle of the seventeenth century, after Öland had been granted to Charles X Gustav, reconstruction resumed as a major Baroque palace project under Nicodemus Tessin the Elder. Work stopped after the king’s death in 1660, resumed at a reduced pace in 1681, and was abandoned in 1709. The palace remained unfinished.
As the completed parts deteriorated, usable spaces served as a school, a textile-dyeing facility, a small garrison, and a prison. Axel Adlersparre acquired the building in 1803 and established textile production in the north wing. On 14 October 1806, a fire attributed to a defective chimney and spread by strong winds destroyed the castle, leaving it a ruin.
Archaeological excavations took place around the castle in 1929, 1938 and 1939, 1963, 1972, 1973, 1974, from 1974 to 1978, in 1988, and in 2004. Later preliminary investigations formed part of a European Union project involving Borgholm Municipality, the Swedish National Property Board, and the Kalmar County Regional Federation. The ruin is owned and administered by the Swedish National Property Board and protected as a Swedish byggnadsminne, a legally protected historic building.
Remains
Setting and medieval fortress
Borgholm Castle stands outside Borgholm on the northern half of Öland, on the Landborg limestone escarpment. The escarpment rises about 25 metres above the surrounding land and curves around the castle, providing natural protection on the west and north. An alvar, an open limestone landscape with thin soil, lies to the east and south. The elevated position also gives the site views across the Kalmar Strait, which separates Öland from the Swedish mainland in Småland.
Central tower
The first fortification centred on a limestone tower about 20 metres high. A small settlement developed around it, including a church built during the first half of the twelfth century and a hospital described as the oldest in southeastern Sweden. The hospital disappeared during the thirteenth century. The original tower was later incorporated into the courtyard of the larger medieval fortress and was retained during the Renaissance rebuilding.
Medieval enclosure
The later medieval fortress had an enclosed wall with three flanking towers on its east, south, and west sides. A square gate tower probably stood on the side facing the alvar. At the beginning of the fourteenth century, a stone building was added inside the northern part of the enclosure. This structure is now called the Old King’s House. Further strengthening produced a square fort approximately 50 by 60 metres, with residential quarters on the side facing the Kalmar Strait.
Renaissance castle
The Renaissance reconstruction created a square castle with circular towers at its four corners. The wing facing the strait contained the apartments. The new work generally did not reuse the earlier structures, except where their foundations fitted the new plan, especially in the west wing. Johan III retained and restored the old central tower, despite the architect’s wish to remove it as an obstruction in the courtyard, so that it would recall the castle’s earlier grandeur. The Old King’s House was also restored, and the New King’s House was built nearby. Limestone came from nearby alvar landscapes and from Gotland, while timber was brought from neighbouring Småland.
Baroque palace ruin
Tessin the Elder’s Baroque plan preserved the general layout but substantially remodelled the castle. The central tower and the rectangular towers set within the walls were demolished, and three of the four planned wings were built before the project was abandoned. The surviving monument is therefore the ruin of the seventeenth-century palace. The fire of 1806 destroyed its roof and most of the usable structure, leaving the walls as the principal remains. Before the fire, the north wing had been in better condition than the rest of the building.
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