Johannisborg Castle

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Johannisborg Castle around 1700, Norrköping in the background.
Gate tower with engine shed in the background around 1985.
The gate tower today.

Johannisborg Castle was a once fortified castle near Norrköping , north of the Motala stream . Construction began with the laying of the foundation stone by Duke Johann von Östergötland on May 3, 1614. 700 servants and soldiers were then busy with the construction of the three-storey building with six spiers.

history

Johannisborg was intended as a retirement home for the duke's wife, Maria Elisabet Wasa, but the castle was not yet finished when they both died at Bråborg Castle in 1618. Johannisborg then went to the Swedish crown. Due to the poor soil conditions, repairs had to be carried out again and again and work on the castle itself had to be stopped, so that the roof could not be laid until 1639.

The architect behind the new palace was Hans Fleming , who had already built Norrköpingshus , which was once in the city, but which burned down in 1604. He planned the new castle with a strong fortification, which should form " a bolt for the city " and prevent an attack from the sea. The fortifications formed a star with five corners and were surrounded by a moat. On the south side, facing the city, there was a gate tower. 30 cannons were to serve as defense, but they never all made it to the castle, and a crew of 3,600 men, who had space on the 130,000 m² area.

When Queen Christina renounced the throne in 1654, she received the city of Norrköping and Johannisborg Castle to provide for her. After her successor Karl X. Gustav died, she came from the European mainland to the Reichstag in Sweden in order to maintain her claim to the supply lands. At the Reichstag she was denied the right to appoint ecclesiastical dignitaries, but she kept her lands. After the Reichstag she lived for a while in Norrköping and Johannisborg Castle before moving back to Central Europe in 1661. After Christina's death on April 9, 1689, Norrköping and the castle returned to the Swedish crown.

When the Russians invaded in 1719, Johannisborg was so dilapidated that it could not prevent the attack and Norrköping was burned down. In the following years the castle served the population as a quarry for the reconstruction of the city and was thus left to further decline.

Today almost no traces are visible except for the gate tower and three of the five former fortification points. The other two peaks were built over with industrial buildings in the 1930s and further traces were lost due to the construction of the freight station nearby and the construction of a post terminal in the early 1980s. Only the inscription on the gate tower, the roof of which has been reconstructed, identifies the former builder Johann von Östergötland.

literature

Coordinates: 58 ° 36 ′ 3 ″  N , 16 ° 11 ′ 56 ″  E