Helliden Castle

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Helliden Castle
View of the castle from one of the ponds in the area

The Castle Helliden is a mansion in the Swedish municipality of Tidaholm in the former County Skaraborgs .

The property was built from 1858 to 1859 as the residence of the industrialist Baron Hans Henrik von Essen (1820-1894). The von Essen family controlled the Tidaholm works since 1846 , which Hans Erik von Essen modernized and expanded. In 1868 he co-founded the Vulcan match factory and was involved in the construction of the Svensbro – Tidaholm railway line . The Vulcan factory was the largest match maker in the world around 1900. His son Alfred von Essen (1869–1937) ran the business after him and inherited the manor house. Helliden was expanded in 1898 and transformed into a castle by the architect Helgo Zettervall (1831–1907). The far-reaching relationships of the von Essen family are also evident in the signatures of royal guests such as Oskar II (1829–1907) and Gustav V (1858–1950), which were engraved on the pillars in front of the main entrance. In 1907, the Tidaholm works began the series production of commercial vehicles of the Tidaholm brand

As a result of the global economic crisis and the collapse of Ivar Kreuger's matchstick empire , to which the Vulcan works had belonged since 1917, the Tidaholm works also ran into difficulties and had to be closed. Alfred von Essen died in 1937. The main house of Helliden Castle could be kept from the huge estate with funds from his widow Ella von Essen (1869–1950). She spent her old age here.

Parts of the property had been used as a school camp or country education home since the 1930s . The author and cabaret artist Lars Forssell (1928–2007) also visited it. In 1951 the Swedish Blue Cross took over the castle, which was now in need of renovation, for SEK 80,000 and set up an adult education center , which is one of the first in Sweden with an artistic focus. For this purpose, the castle was extended and redesigned according to the plans of the architects Bo Boustedt and Hans-Erland Heineman . Several structural modifications have been made since it opened in 1952. Offers include courses in pottery and lithography . The castle also contains a museum with an art lithographic collection.

Web links

Commons : Helliden  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e f g Tidaholm Tourism: Helliden Castle.
  2. ↑ Riksarkivet / Svenskt biografiskt lexikon (SBL): Hans Henrik von Essen (1820-1894) (Swedish) .
  3. ↑ a b c Boman: Tidaholm - en tidig industriort. Västgöta Bygden 2/2012, p. 7.
  4. ↑ George Nick Georgano (Ed.), G. Marshall Naul: Complete Encyclopedia of Commercial Vehicles. MBI Motor Books International, Osceola WI, 1979, ISBN 0-87341-024-6 . P. 618.

Coordinates: 58 ° 10 '26 "  N , 13 ° 58' 44"  E