Stegeborg Castle

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Stegeborg Castle on an engraving from 1706, from Suecia antiqua et hodierna .
The ruin in 2010

The ruins of Stegeborg Castle are located in the Swedish municipality of Söderköping on an island in the narrow sound of the Baltic Sea known as Slätbaken . In the sound south of Vikbolandet and south-east of Norrköping , a line of stakes driven into the water once blocked the passage for ships. The piles were dated to the period between AD 689 and 1012 using radiocarbon dating, while the castle first appeared as Stækaborg in 1310 .

Of the remains that still exist today, the oldest come from a square brick tower from the 13th century, which was located in the southeast corner. In the 14th century, a simple residential castle was built, which was expanded to the west with a circular wall and a round tower. In the following centuries the castle was expanded. The greatest building activity took place during the reign of King John III, who was born here . took place when the round tower still existing today received its final shape. The kings of the Vasa dynasty liked to live in the castle, which was completed by a castle church.

Between 1652 and 1689, the Count leased Johan Casimir and Adolf Johan from the house of Pfalz-Zweibrücken-Kleeburg the castle, which is also as the administrative headquarters for the archipelago of Östergötland was used. The subsequent decline led to the fact that the castle was demolished in 1731, except for a few walls on the ground floor, and the stones were used as building material in nearby Norrköping . In 1806, a new palace in the classical style was built on a nearby royal estate.

literature

  • Leif Törnquist: Svenska borgar och fästningar. En historisk reseguide. Medström Stockholm 2007, ISBN 978-91-7329-001-2 , page 216ff.

Individual evidence

  1. RAÄ Skällvik 272

Coordinates: 58 ° 26 ′ 29 ″  N , 16 ° 35 ′ 56 ″  E