Visingsborg

You can already see Visingborg Castle’s ruins from the ferry to Visingsö, rising magnificently towards the sky. The ruins have born witness to the long history of the county's heyday.

The ruins of Visingsborg Castle sit picturesquely on the shores of Visingsö, overlooking the clear waters of Lake Vättern. The site chosen for the castle is today surrounded by soft grass banks and oak forest. It was a mighty building and although what we see today is but a small part, it witnessed a time when Visingsö was the centre of Sweden’s then largest county.

Visit Visingsborg castle ruins

Visitors are allowed to go up to the ruin, walk along the grass embankments and look down into some of the hollows that remain. However, due to the risk of collapse, it is not permitted to enter the ruins. The site around the castle ruins is always open.

During the summer months, theatre performances and concerts are organized, using the ruins as an impressive backdrop.

Bring your picnic basket and enjoy a lovely picnic in the courtyard or have a bite to eat at one of the restaurants in the harbour, which enjoy Visingsborg as their view. Nearby, Wisingsborg Gardens offers light lunches and a café on the site of one of the castle's original herb gardens.

Visingsborg - a stronghold of power

It's not hard to imagine all the activity that must have gone on in and around Visingsborg Castle in its heyday. Around it there were a very large number of farms, manors and people who were the property and subjects of Count Per Brahe the Younger. With a little imagination, we can hear the clatter of the maid hurrying across the courtyard, see the soldiers lining up for inspection and the neighing horses.

Today the castle is a thing of the past, but there is an information board which shows how the castle looked in its impressive original size. Construction of Visingsborg Castle was begun in the 1570s by Per Brahe the Elder and took almost a hundred years to complete. In 1662, Visingsborg was finished, a white and gold stronghold of power with four towers and gilded spires. By then, Pehr Brahe the Younger was in charge of the county.

The county's heyday

Construction of Visingsborg Castle began when Per Brahe the Elder was given the title of count in 1561 by the then King Erik XIV. The county was at its height during the time of Per Brahe the Younger, who was to be the county's last ever count. At that time the county covered twelve square kilometres over twenty parishes in Småland, Västergötland and Östergötland. Visingsö was thus the strategic centre of the Sweden’s then largest county.

Such a large county required a manor house. During the time of Per Brahe the Elder, bricks for the building were taken from the monastery in Alvastra at Omberg. But to meet demand, a brickworks factory was also started in Gränna. Per Brahe the Elder's son, Magnus Brahe, then continued to expand the castle by building the southern wing. This is the part whose ruins remain standing, and so what you see today is only a fraction of the original castle.

The county land and estates were transferred back to the Swedish crown in connection with the so-called ‘great reduction’ and became the property of King Karl XI. Only a few months before the county was lost, Count Per Brahe the Younger died in 1680 at his seat Bogesund in Uppland. He, the last count, was never to know what happened to his marvellous Visingsborg castle. After the transfer of the county seat, the castle was used as a temporary residence for senior officials.

Prison for prisoners of war

In its final days, the castle served as a prison for prisoners of war. An incorrect explanation, but one that stuck, for why the castle burned down is that it was the prisoners of war who set fire to it.

What really happened was that late in the evening of 22 December 1718, most of the men were asleep in the junior officers' quarters in the north-east corner of the castle.

But not sargeant, Johan Rasch. He fancied a smoke, so he took straw from his mattress and lit it in the stove. He lit his pipe and took a few puffs, and some time later a fire broke out. Exactly how the fire spread is shrouded in mystery. The soldiers tried in vain to put out the fire and complained afterwards that they received no help at all from the prisoners.

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