Marsvinsholm Castle ( sv, Marsvinsholms slott) is situated in

Ystad Municipality Ystad Municipality ( sv, Ystads kommun) is a municipality in Scania County in southern Sweden. Its seat is the town of Ystad. The present municipality was created in 1971 by the amalgamation of the former ''City of Ystad'' with four surrounding mu ...

Scania Scania, also known by its native name of Skåne (, ), is the southernmost of the historical provinces of Sweden, provinces (''landskap'') of Sweden. Located in the south tip of the geographical region of Götaland, the province is roughly conte ...

, in southern

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 ...

, from

Ystad Ystad (; older da, Ysted) is a town and the seat of Ystad Municipality, in Scania County, Sweden. Ystad had 18,350 inhabitants in 2010. The settlement dates from the 11th century and has become a busy ferryport, local administrative centre, and ...

History

The estate was first known as Bosøe, Borsøe and Bordsyø and is known from the 14th century. During the late 14th century, it became part of the royal Danish

crown land Crown land (sometimes spelled crownland), also known as royal domain, is a territorial area belonging to the monarch, who personifies the Crown. It is the equivalent of an entailed estate and passes with the monarchy, being inseparable from it. ...

, and was owned by king Valdermar Atterdag and later by his daughter, queen Margrethe. Around 1520 it was pawned to Danish admiral Jens Holgersen

Ulfstand Ulfstand was a Danish, mostly Scanian, noble family, known since the 14th century and extinct in the male line in 1637. It was possibly descended from a German noble family, and took the name Ulfstand when King Frederick decreed that the nobility ...

who in 1499 had constructed nearby

Glimmingehus Glimmingehus is a medieval era castle located at Simrishamn Municipality, Scania in southern Sweden. It is the best preserved medieval stronghold in Scandinavia. It was built 1499–1506, during an era when Scania formed a vital part of Denmark, ...

. The property ceased to be crown land. In 1630, Palle Ulfsted sold the property to Danish nobleman Otte Marsvin, who constructed the present castle 1644–1648, naming it after his family. ''Marsvin'' is the Danish word for the ''

porpoise Porpoises are a group of fully aquatic marine mammals, all of which are classified under the family Phocoenidae, parvorder Odontoceti (toothed whales). Although similar in appearance to dolphins, they are more closely related to narwhals an ...

'' and ''holm'' is a small island. Otte Marsvin's sister,

Ellen Marsvin Ellen Marsvin (1 February 1572 – 11 November 1649) was a Danish noble, landowner and county administrator. She was the mother-in-law of King Christian IV of Denmark-Norway, the mother of Kirsten Munk (1598–1658) and grandmother of Leonora Chr ...

, was the "mother-in-law" (her daughter Kirsten Munk was a common law wife to the king) of the king

Christian IV of Denmark Christian IV (12 April 1577 – 28 February 1648) was King of Denmark and Norway and Duke of Holstein and Schleswig from 1588 until his death in 1648. His reign of 59 years, 330 days is the longest of Danish monarchs and Scandinavian monar ...

, and the Marsvin family was one of Denmark's largest property owners. Otte Marsvin constructed his castle on

beech Beech (''Fagus'') is a genus of deciduous trees in the family Fagaceae, native to temperate Europe, Asia, and North America. Recent classifications recognize 10 to 13 species in two distinct subgenera, ''Engleriana'' and ''Fagus''. The ''Engle ...

poles Poles,, ; singular masculine: ''Polak'', singular feminine: ''Polka'' or Polish people, are a West Slavic nation and ethnic group, who share a common history, culture, the Polish language and are identified with the country of Poland in Ce ...

in a small lake. It is a four-storey, square structure. Two of the four corners, in the north east and the south west, are provided with five-storey towers. The castle was renovated thoroughly between 1782 and 1786 by count

Erik Ruuth Eric Ruuth (24 October 1746 – 25 May 1820) was a Swedish nobleman and the owner of Marsvinsholm Castle. He served as the Governor-General of Swedish Pomerania from 1792 to 1796. With his coal mine he started the company that would eventually be ...

, and in 1856-1857 baron Jules Sjöblad hired Danish architect Ch. F. Zwingmann to restore the castle again. This last restoration gave the structure its current Dutch Renaissance (''

Christian IV Christian IV (12 April 1577 – 28 February 1648) was King of Denmark and Norway and Duke of Holstein and Schleswig from 1588 until his death in 1648. His reign of 59 years, 330 days is the longest of Danish monarchs and Scandinavian monar ...

'')-style. Due to the

Scanian War The Scanian War ( da, Skånske Krig, , sv, Skånska kriget, german: Schonischer Krieg) was a part of the Northern Wars involving the union of Denmark–Norway, Brandenburg and Sweden. It was fought from 1675 to 1679 mainly on Scanian soil, ...

(1675-1679), the pro-Danish owner Holger Thott was stripped of the castle by the Swedish crown. It has since then - through inheritance and sale - belonged to the

Swedish Swedish or ' may refer to: Anything from or related to Sweden, a country in Northern Europe. Or, specifically: * Swedish language, a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Sweden and Finland ** Swedish alphabet, the official alphabet used by ...

families von Königsmarck,

de la Gardie The De la Gardie family (also de la Gardie) is the name of a distinguished Swedish noble family of French origin. History The family's social status in France is uncertain; the founder, Ponce d'Escouperie, son of a tradesman, came to Sweden as a ...

, Sjöblad, Ruuth, Piper, Tornerhielm and Wachtmeister. Count Carl Wachtmeister sold the castle and the remaining land to baron Jules Stjernblad in 1854. The castle was handed down to his daughter, countess Ida Eherensvärd. Her children, Rutger, Louise and Madeleine Bennet owned it until 1910 when they sold it to Johannes Johannesen from Denmark. In 1938, he gave the property to his daughter, Anna Margrethe and her husband Jørgen Wendelboe-Larsen. In 1978 their son, Erik Wendelboe-Larsen, sold the property to Bengt Iacobaeus, whose son, Tomas Iacobaeus, is the current owner of Marsvinsholm.

References

External links

* Castles in Skåne County {{Sweden-castle-stub