Almarestäket's castle (or Sankt Erik's castle) is a medieval castle ruin in

Upplands-Bro municipality Upplands-Bro Municipality () is a municipality in Stockholm County in east central Sweden. Its seat is located in the town of Kungsängen. The municipality was formed in 1952 through the amalgamation of five rural municipalities in Uppsala Coun ...

in Stockholm County. The complex is named after

Eric IX of Sweden Saint Erik ( 1125 - 18 May 1160), also called Eric IX or Erik Jedvardsson was King of Sweden from 1156 until his death in 1160. The ''Roman Martyrology'' of the Catholic Church names him as a saint memorialized on 18 May. He was the founder of ...

and was once one of Sweden's strongest and most famous castles,Informationstavla på platsen uppsatt av Stockholms läns museum och Upplands bro kommun located at the important

choke point In military strategy, a choke point (or chokepoint), or sometimes bottleneck, is a geographical feature on land such as a valley, defile or bridge, or maritime passage through a critical waterway such as a strait, which an armed force is for ...

Almarestäket Almarestäket, or ''Stäket'', is a strait at the inlet of Lake Mälaren in central-eastern Sweden. A fortress existed there between about 1370 and 1517. A place mentioned as Stocksund by Old Norse author Snorre Sturlasson was once believed t ...

, a strait at the inlet to

Lake Mälaren A lake is often a naturally occurring, relatively large and fixed body of water on or near the Earth's surface. It is localized in a basin or interconnected basins surrounded by dry land. Lakes lie completely on land and are separate from t ...

. Almarestäket's castle is listed as an ancient monument by the

Swedish National Heritage Board The Swedish National Heritage Board (; RAÄ) is a Swedish government agency responsible for World Heritage Sites and other national heritage monuments and historical environments. It is governed by the Ministry of Culture. The goals of the agen ...

History

A castle was built during the 12th century on Stäketsholmen (which was then an island), and served as a defense facility for the cities of

Sigtuna Sigtuna is a Urban areas in Sweden, locality situated in the eponymous Sigtuna Municipality, in Stockholm County, Sweden with 9,689 inhabitants in 2020. It is the namesake even though the seat of the municipality is in another locality, Märsta. S ...

and

Uppsala Uppsala ( ; ; archaically spelled ''Upsala'') is the capital of Uppsala County and the List of urban areas in Sweden by population, fourth-largest city in Sweden, after Stockholm, Gothenburg, and Malmö. It had 177,074 inhabitants in 2019. Loc ...

. An important waterway ran here between

Stockholm Stockholm (; ) is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in Sweden by population, most populous city of Sweden, as well as the List of urban areas in the Nordic countries, largest urban area in the Nordic countries. Approximately ...

and Uppsala, and whoever had control over the waterways also had control over the kingdom. Throughout the

Middle Ages In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the 5th to the late 15th centuries, similarly to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire and ...

, there was a constant tug-of-war between the king and the church over the rule of the castle. The castle was first mentioned at the end of the 14th century and is described in the Swedish rhyming chronicle, '' Karlskrönikan'' (1389–1524) as having been burned down on the night of 11 November 1434 by Eric Nipertz, on the orders of

Erik of Pomerania Erik of Pomerania ( 1381/1382 – 24 September 1459) ruled over the Kalmar Union from 1396 until 1439. He was initially co-ruler with his great-aunt Margaret I until her death in 1412. Erik is known as Erik III as King of Norway (1389–1442), ...

and the eunuch of

Stockholm Castle Stockholm Palace, or the Royal Palace, ( or ) is the official residence and major Crown palaces in Sweden, royal palace of the Monarchy of Sweden, Swedish monarch (King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden, Carl XVI Gustaf and Queen Silvia of Sweden, Queen ...

Hans Kröpelin. The reason was to prevent

Engelbrekt Engelbrektsson Engelbrekt Engelbrektsson (1390s – 4 May 1436) was a Swedish nobleman, rebel leader and military leader of German ancestry. He was the leader of the Engelbrekt rebellion in 1434 against Eric of Pomerania, king of the Kalmar Union. Biograp ...

's troops from capturing the castle. In 1440, Archbishop

Nils Ragvaldsson Nicolaus Ragvaldi (; early 1380s – 17 February 1448) was the bishop of Växjö and the archbishop of Uppsala in Sweden from 1438 to 1448. He is known as an early representative of the Gothicist tradition. On 12 November 1434 he held a spee ...

received permission to build a new castle, which was completed about ten years later.

Demolition

During the domestic political strife of the 1510s, Bishop

Gustav Trolle Gustav Eriksson Trolle (September 1488 – 1535) was the archbishop of Uppsala in Sweden, in two sessions, during the turbulent Reformation events. He was the son of Eric Arvidsson Trolle, a former regent of Sweden during the era of the Kalmar ...

held the castle, which was besieged by his main opponent,

Sten Sture the Younger Sten Sture the Younger () (1493 – 3 February 1520), was a Swedish nobleman who served as the regent of Sweden, during the era of the Kalmar Union. Biography Sture was born in 1493, as the son of Svante Nilsson (regent of Sweden) and Iliana G ...

in 1516–17. In 1517, despite the threat of

excommunication Excommunication is an institutional act of religious censure used to deprive, suspend, or limit membership in a religious community or to restrict certain rights within it, in particular those of being in Koinonia, communion with other members o ...

, Sten Sture enforced a decision of the

Riksdag The Riksdag ( , ; also or , ) is the parliament and the parliamentary sovereignty, supreme decision-making body of the Kingdom of Sweden. Since 1971, the Riksdag has been a unicameral parliament with 349 members (), elected proportional rep ...

that the castle should be demolished. The demolition was carried out in 1519, as records indicate that the brick had been transported from Almarestäket to Stockholm to be reused. The event was the prelude to the

Stockholm Bloodbath The Stockholm Bloodbath () was a trial that led to a series of executions in Stockholm between 7 and 9 November 1520. The event is also known as the Stockholm massacre. The events occurred after the coronation of Christian II as the new king of ...

in 1520.

Ruin today

The castle ruin stands on an easily accessible plateau-like hill with an area of 125 × 80 meters and a height of 3–4 meters. In the northwestern part, traces of foundations and house foundations are visible, with pits filled with gray stone and occasional bricks. On the western slope, there is a string of blocks that could possibly originate from a collapsed wall. From the ruin hill, there is a wide view over Görväln and

. Below the hill is an approximately five-meter high obelisk in red granite that was built in 1804, as well as the remains of the adjacent bridge over the Almarestäket.

Gallery

File:Almare-Stäkets borg 2014b.jpg, alt= File:Almare-Stäkets borg 2014c.jpg, alt= File:Almare-Stäkets borg 2014f.jpg, alt= File:Almare-Stäkets borg 2014e.jpg, alt=

References

{{coord, 59, 28, 10, N, 17, 47, 33, E, type:landmark_region:SE, display=title Castles in Stockholm County Upplands-Bro Municipality