Gladsaxehus ( sv, Gladsax hus; earlier Gladsaxehus, also Glathsax or Glatzsax) is a ruined castle in Gladsax parish, in the
Simrishamn Municipality
Simrishamn Municipality ( sv, Simrishamns kommun) is a municipality in Skåne County in southern Sweden. Its seat is located in the city Simrishamn.
The creation of the present municipality took place during the last of the two nationwide mun ...
ruins
Ruins () are the remains of a civilization's architecture. The term refers to formerly intact structures that have fallen into a state of partial or total disrepair over time due to a variety of factors, such as lack of maintenance, deliberate ...
lie immediately to the east of the church and cemetery of Gladsax.
History
The first written mention of the property is a charter issued in 1322 by Archbishop Esger Juul affirming the ruling by Archbishop Eskil in the 12th century that four churches were subordinate to the monastery at Tommarp, amongst which was "ecclesiam sancti Jacobi in Glathsyas".Lars Jönsson Gladsaxehus - en medeltida länsborg Gladsax By
In her will dated 11 August 1398,
Ide Pedersdatter Falk Ide Pedersdatter Falk (1358-15 August 1399), was a powerful Danish noble landholder and the founder of a convent.
Ide was the daughter of the noble Peder Eskildsøn and Ida Olufsdatter and a member of the Falk family, who previously belonged to on ...
, widow of Torkil Nielsen Bing, bequeathed her manor at Gladsax, together with a large fortune in property and cash, to be the endowment and seat of a planned Dominican
nun
A nun is a woman who vows to dedicate her life to religious service, typically living under vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience in the enclosure of a monastery or convent.''The Oxford English Dictionary'', vol. X, page 599. The term is o ...
nery. She appointed her personal friend, Queen Margaret, to be her executor. However, after Ide Falk's death in 1399, the queen and Bishop Peder of Roskilde realised the strategic importance of the location as a counterweight to the archbishop's castles at
Åhus
Åhus () is the second largest urban areas in Sweden, locality in Kristianstad Municipality, Skåne County, Sweden with 9,840 inhabitants in 2015, but the number triples during the summer due to tourists who come seeking the beaches and nature o ...
, four miles to the north, and
Hammershus
Hammershus is a medieval era fortification at Hammeren on the northern tip of the Danish island of Bornholm.
The fortress was partially demolished around 1750 and is now a ruin. It was partially restored around 1900.
History
Hammershus was Sca ...
on Bornholm. They succeeded in obtaining the Pope's permission to transfer the monastic endowment to Gavnø on
Zealand
Zealand ( da, Sjælland ) at 7,031 km2 is the largest and most populous island in Denmark proper (thus excluding Greenland and Disko Island, which are larger in size). Zealand had a population of 2,319,705 on 1 January 2020.
It is the 1 ...
.
The manor then became the royal
fief
A fief (; la, feudum) was a central element in medieval contracts based on feudal law. It consisted of a form of property holding or other rights granted by an overlord to a vassal, who held it in fealty or "in fee" in return for a form ...
of Gladsaxehus, together with the parish of Gladsax, the settlement of Simrishamn and significant portions of Albo Hundred as the outlying land of the fief. Gladsax
county
A county is a geographic region of a country used for administrative or other purposes Chambers Dictionary, L. Brookes (ed.), 2005, Chambers Harrap Publishers Ltd, Edinburgh in certain modern nations. The term is derived from the Old French ...
came to be considered one of the primary
counties
A county is a geographic region of a country used for administrative or other purposesChambers Dictionary, L. Brookes (ed.), 2005, Chambers Harrap Publishers Ltd, Edinburgh in certain modern nations. The term is derived from the Old French ...
of Skåne.
For about 200 years, the lords of Gladsax resided at Gladsaxehus. They included Eskil Mogensen Göye (enfeoffed in 1471, died 1476), Jens Holgersen Ulfstand (probably enfeoffed 1476, died 1486) and Sten Basse Bille (enfeoffed 1490, died 1506). Gladsax was an independent fief until 1621, when it became part of
Kristianstad
Kristianstad (, ; older spelling from Danish ''Christianstad'') is a city and the seat of Kristianstad Municipality, Scania County, Sweden with 40,145 inhabitants in 2016. During the last 15 years, it has gone from a garrison town to a devel ...
County, and the king endowed Jacob Beck, priest of Gladsax, Bosjökloster, and Vapnö, with the castle and most of the land.
In the 1770s, C. G. Hilfeling inventoried properties in Skåne on behalf of the king; at Gladsax he described the ruins of a stone walled castle with newer buildings to the west. (The "fishponds" he also mentions near the castle were probably part of a water-driven system for smelting silver from a local mine.) In 1844, C. G. Brunius, a professor at