Sävstaholm Castle: A Historic Noble Residence in Sweden
Site at a Glance
- Rating
- 4
- Popularity
- Low
- Country
- Sweden
- Primary era
- Early Modern
- External website
- Open
- Eras represented
- Early Modern, Modern
- Civilizations
- Swedish
- Site type
- Domestic
- Remains
- Castle
On this page12 sections
History
Sävstaholm Castle is a historic noble residence in Sweden, located in Vingåker Municipality in Södermanland. The present castle was completed in 1666 as a castle-like principal residence begun by Åke Axelsson and finished by Governor Gustaf Sparre. Its design is probably associated with Erik Dahlbergh, a Swedish military engineer, architect, and draughtsman who also depicted the estate in Suecia antiqua et hodierna.
From Sävsta village to noble estate
The castle stands on the site of the former village of Sävsta, which was first documented in 1382. During the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, ownership of the village was divided among noble landowners, the Church of Vingåker, and Julita Monastery, a medieval religious institution that held land in the area. Parts of Sävsta were donated to the monastery in 1465 and 1477. The Crown confiscated the estate sometime between 1554 and 1559, during the period when the Swedish Crown took control of ecclesiastical property.
In 1598, the noble farms belonging to the estate passed through the marriage of Ingeborg Johansdotter to Jöran Knutsson Posse. Posse supported King Sigismund against Duke Charles at the Battle of Stångebro, a conflict in which Charles defeated Sigismund’s supporters during the struggle for control of Sweden. Posse later reconciled with the duke, fled to Poland, and lost his property to Crown confiscation in 1604. The estate was subsequently returned to his daughter Anna Posse and her husband, Colonel Erik Soop.
Anna Posse and Erik Soop acquired the remaining parts of the village from Axel Oxenstierna in 1626. They also received exemption from ordinary estate taxes and established the first principal residence on the estate during the 1620s. In 1633, Anna transferred Sävstaholm to her cousin Åke Axelsson of the Natt och Dag family, one of the Swedish noble families whose inheritances shaped the estate’s ownership.
The seventeenth- and eighteenth-century estate
Åke Axelsson began the castle-like residence that occupies the site today but died before the building was finished. His daughter Beata Åkesdotter inherited Sävstaholm, and her second husband, Governor Gustaf Sparre, completed the castle in 1666. The building’s design is usually attributed to Erik Dahlbergh, who was living at nearby Skenäs while working on that estate.
Sävstaholm grew substantially through purchases and transfers of farms and Crown land. It comprised about 30 mantals in 1644 and 42¾ mantals, in addition to the three mantals attached directly to the demesne, in 1678. A mantal was a historical Swedish fiscal unit used to assess farms and estates for taxation and other obligations, rather than a straightforward measure of land area. By 1741, Sävstaholm covered about 50 mantals, although 22 were later transferred to the Kesätter estate by the beginning of the nineteenth century.
After Gustaf Sparre died childless in 1689, the property passed through his widow and the Sparre and Bonde families. Claes Bonde held the estate until his death in 1726 and purchased roughly twenty additional farms. His widow also acquired Kesätter, further enlarging the family’s holdings. Carl Bonde inherited Sävstaholm after the death of his mother, Beata Sparre. He was appointed chamberlain in 1719 but could not take up the office because of ill health, and he died childless at Sävstaholm in 1755. His elder brother, Gustaf Ulf Bonde, then received Sävstaholm, while the younger brother inherited Kesätter and the family properties in Småland.
During Gustaf Ulf Bonde’s tenure, a fire completely devastated the castle in 1762, leaving only the exterior walls. The building was soon restored, and the rebuilding introduced a modern mansard roof. After Bonde’s death in 1772, his widow, Hedvig Sofia Banér, held the castle until her death in 1780. Their daughter Ebba Margareta and her husband, Carl Bonde of Björnö, subsequently inherited Sävstaholm. Carl Bonde was an active civil servant who spent little time on his estates and died at Sävstaholm in 1791.
The Trolle-Bonde period
The estate’s major transformation took place in the early nineteenth century under Count Gustaf Trolle-Bonde, known as “the Blind Excellency.” He held Sävstaholm from 1791 to 1855 and remodelled the castle as an English-style rural residence, using designs by Carl Christoffer Gjörwell, a Swedish architect active in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. Trolle-Bonde also expanded cultivation areas and developed the surrounding parkland.
In 1833, Trolle-Bonde transferred the fideicommiss from Björnö in Roslagen to Sävstaholm. A fideicommiss, or entail, was an inheritance arrangement intended to keep an estate and its associated rights within a family instead of dividing them among heirs. Trolle-Bonde made Sävstaholm widely known, built one of Sweden’s largest private collections of books and works of art, and hosted artists at the estate for extended periods. Local subjects consequently appeared in works by several prominent painters.
After the estate was sold in 1920 by the family of Trolle-Bonde’s great-nephew, the entail was dissolved and the collection was dispersed. The castle eventually stood empty. From 1934 until 1968, the Association for the Care of Mentally Disabled Children operated a residential school there. In 1968, its educational work moved to the newly built Dammsdal School, and Vingåker Municipality acquired Sävstaholm. The municipality has owned the castle since that time.
Municipal preservation and renewed cultural use
Vingåker Municipality carried out extensive renovations during the 1980s in cooperation with Södermanland Museum. The representative middle floor was restored to reflect the environment associated with Gustaf Trolle-Bonde, and art exhibitions returned to the castle. The exhibition She Has Talent—Unfortunately, devoted to nineteenth-century women artists, gave Sävstaholm national prominence in 2003. It was the fifteenth locally produced summer exhibition held at the castle.
Remains
Sävstaholm survives as a castle-like residence set within a historic park. The main building preserves the exterior walls that remained after the fire of 1762, together with the mansard roof introduced during the subsequent rebuilding. Its present form also reflects the early nineteenth-century remodelling that adapted the residence to an English-style rural setting.
The castle building
Exterior and architectural development
The principal building was begun by Åke Axelsson and completed in 1666 under Gustaf Sparre. Its probable architect, Erik Dahlbergh, was known for architectural designs and illustrated views of Swedish estates and monuments. The fire of 1762 left only the exterior walls, after which the castle was restored. A further restoration in 1815 made only minor changes, while the rebuilding associated with the earlier fire retained the modern mansard roof.
Representative interior
The representative middle floor was substantially renovated in the 1980s. Its interior presents an environment associated with the period of Gustaf Trolle-Bonde, when the castle was remodelled as an English-style rural residence and used to house his extensive collection of books and works of art. The castle is again used for art exhibitions.
Park and surviving cultural features
Parkland
A park has existed at Sävstaholm since at least the nineteenth century. During Gustaf Trolle-Bonde’s tenure, the estate’s cultivated areas were enlarged and the parkland was landscaped as part of the transformation of Sävstaholm into a rural residence.
Sävstaholm apple tree
A parent tree of the Sävstaholm apple has stood in the park since the middle of the nineteenth century. A parent tree is the original tree from which a cultivated fruit variety is propagated, linking this surviving natural feature with the estate’s nineteenth-century landscape.
