Skokloster Castle, built between 1654 and 1676, is a monument to the Swedish Age of Greatness – a period in the middle of the seventeenth century when Sweden expanded to become one of the major powers in Europe.
Since the owner of Skokloster Castle General Carl Gustaf Wrangel died in 1676, the castle was never really completed. This is a fact that you can see by your self – just visit the banqueting hall which remains in the exakt same condition, tools included, as the builders left it the day Wrangel died. (the builders stopped working because they were afraid they that they would never get paid!)
The rest of the castle has also remained amazingly untouched for more than 300 years, giving this building a unique authenticity. Wrangel and his subsequent owners collected items like armoury, books, silver and textiles, as well as some artifacts from South America. Everything is left intact since the late 1700th century.
Margareta Juliana, Wrangel's eldest daughter, married Nils Brahe, a member of Sweden’s most exalted countly families. On her initiative Skokloster was in 1701 given a certain form of ownership, thanks to which we still have in our possession the castles original furnishings and the objects added through the centuries by inheritance, purchase and gift.
Skokloster is considered one of the great castles of Baroque Europe.
SKOKLOSTER CASTLE
