Bråborg was a former Royal

castle A castle is a type of fortified structure built during the Middle Ages predominantly by the nobility or royalty and by military orders. Scholars debate the scope of the word ''castle'', but usually consider it to be the private fortified r ...

Bråviken Bråviken is a bay of the Baltic sea that is located near Norrköping in Östergötland, Sweden. It is an example of a fjard, a drowned shallow glacial valley U-shaped valleys, also called trough valleys or glacial troughs, are formed by th ...

Norrköping Municipality Norrköping Municipality (''Norrköpings kommun'') is a municipality in Östergötland County in southeast Sweden. Its seat is located in the city of Norrköping, with some 90,000 inhabitants. It is the largest municipality in Östergötland. By ...

Östergötland Östergötland (; English exonym: East Gothland) is one of the traditional provinces of Sweden (''landskap'' in Swedish) in the south of Sweden. It borders Småland, Västergötland, Närke, Södermanland and the Baltic Sea. In older English li ...

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden,The United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names states that the country's formal name is the Kingdom of SwedenUNGEGN World Geographical Names, Sweden./ref> is a Nordic country located on ...

. Today, a ruin is all that remains of the estate.

History

The house was built by

Queen Dowager A queen dowager or dowager queen (compare: princess dowager or dowager princess) is a title or status generally held by the widow of a king. In the case of the widow of an emperor, the title of empress dowager is used. Its full meaning is clear ...

Gunilla Bielke Gunilla Bielke; Swedish: ''Gunilla Johansdotter Bielke af Åkerö'' (25 June 1568 – 19 July 1597) was Queen of Sweden as the second wife of King John III. Queen Gunilla is acknowledged to have acted as the political adviser to John III and to h ...

in 1588-1590 and she lived there after her husband, King

John III of Sweden John III ( sv , Johan III, fi, Juhana III; 20 December 1537 – 17 November 1592) was King of Sweden from 1569 until his death. He was the son of King Gustav I of Sweden and his second wife Margaret Leijonhufvud. He was also, quite autonomous ...

, died in 1592. Gunilla Bielke herself died at Bråborg in 1597. Bråborg was later owned by her son, duke John of Östergötland. In 1612 he married his cousin, princess

Maria Elisabeth of Sweden Maria Elizabeth (10 March 1596 – 7 August 1618) was a Swedish princess, daughter of King Charles IX of Sweden and Christina of Holstein-Gottorp, and by marriage Duchess of Östergötland. Biography Maria Elizabeth was born in Örebro Castle, ...

. They both died at Bråborg in 1618. The building was partly destroyed in a fire in 1669, and in 1719 it was burnt down by a

Russian army The Russian Ground Forces (russian: Сухопутные войска �В Sukhoputnyye voyska V, also known as the Russian Army (, ), are the Army, land forces of the Russian Armed Forces. The primary responsibilities of the Russian Gro ...

during the

Russian Pillage of 1719-1721 Russian(s) refers to anything related to Russia, including: *Russians (, ''russkiye''), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *Rossiyane (), Russian language term for all citizens and peo ...

. The army also attacked the nearby town of

Norrköping Norrköping (; ) is a city in the province of Östergötland in eastern Sweden and the seat of Norrköping Municipality, Östergötland County, about 160 km southwest of the national capital Stockholm, 40 km east of county seat Linköp ...

. The inhabitants needed stone to rebuild their town and used building material from the ruins of Bråborg. The new manor house at Bråborg was built about from the burnt down house. The old estate with remains of the renaissance castle covers an area of . The foundations and cellars are still visible today, together with the moats and parts of the gardens.

History

See also