Vittskövle Castle ( also ''Widtskövle slott'') is an estate in

Kristianstad Municipality Kristianstad Municipality () is a municipality in Skåne County in southernmost Sweden. Its seat is located in the city Kristianstad. The present municipality was created in three steps during the last nationwide local government reform, and it ...

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

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the west and north, and Finland to the east. At , Sweden is the largest Nordic count ...

. It has one of the best-preserved

Renaissance The Renaissance ( , ) is a Periodization, period of history and a European cultural movement covering the 15th and 16th centuries. It marked the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and was characterized by an effort to revive and sur ...

castles in the

Nordic countries The Nordic countries (also known as the Nordics or ''Norden''; ) are a geographical and cultural region in Northern Europe, as well as the Arctic Ocean, Arctic and Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic oceans. It includes the sovereign states of Denm ...

History

During the last years of the Middle Ages, the estate belonged to the

Archbishop of Lund List of (arch)bishops of Lund. Until the Reformation in Denmark, Danish Reformation the centre of a great Latin (arch)bishopric, Lund has been in Sweden since the Treaty of Roskilde in 1658. The Diocese of Lund is now one of thirteen in the Ch ...

. The main house was erected by Jens Brahe (ca 1500–1560) in the 16th century as a defence structure. It was completed in 1577. In the 18th century, the northwest tower burned and the spire was built in a romantic medieval style. The park and gardens were mainly built by Adolf Fredrik Barnekow (1744–87). At the beginning of the 19th century, the castle was newly decorated with murals and ceiling paintings by Swedish painter Christian Laurentius Gernandt (1765-1825).Vittskövle has belonged to members of the Stjernswärd family since 1837.

References

Castles in Skåne County 16th-century establishments in Scania Water castles Kristianstad Municipality {{Sweden-castle-stub