Ekenäs castle (Ekenäs slott, in Swedish) is located in Linköping Municipality in Sweden. The castle and the area itself has a long history that the guide told us about.
In the 1200's, before the castle was built, there was a village called Vrå on top of the cliff. About 200 years later, the residents were forced to move because the noble family Natt och Dag (Night and Day) wanted to build a residence and defense facility on the cliff. The noble family expanded and now the Sture family was involved.
Svante Sture the Younger was a count who married Märta Leijonhufvud and then became the brother in law of King Gustav Vasa, in 1538.
In the 1560's, a small defense tower (en kastal, in Swedish) was built on the cliff. The bailiff exercised the management of the estate and neighbouring farms, and collected taxes which where, for the most part, in the form of natural products. These were stored in the cellars.
The daughter of Svante Sture, Christina, married Gustaf Banér who was another noble and a member of the Privy Council of Sweden. Ekenäs was then property of the Banér family. 1
Peder Banér then wanted a castle to be built on the cliff of Ekenäs during the period between 1630-1644, but he died before the castle was finished. His son Claes Banér made sure that the castle was completed.
When you enter the castle and walk through the hallway you're greeted by this painting. The woman in the picture was a servant in the castle. Her name has unfortunately been forgotten, but her actions are still remembered. In the early 1700's Sweden was invaded by Russians and they came close to Ekenäs. The servant helped to protect the castle. She had the idea that one could place bonfires around the castle to make it look like the building was on fire. The idea worked. The Russians saw the flames from a distance and turned around immediately. The woman's heroic deed was honored and she was rewarded with her portrait.
This is the dining room. The guide told us that on special occasions the guests could be served between 80-100 different courses. To consume as much as possible one had to leave the table when full, walk out to the garden and puke and get back to eating.
This cellar has a tragic and bloody back story. Count Mauritz Vellingk owned the castle between 1687-1727. He was a power hungry and selfish man who didn't like to pay taxes. He wanted to hide the evidence of his tax fraud by placing the papers in a chest and dropping it to the bottom of a lake, but he couldn't row. Vellingk then asked a 12 year old servant for help and they got rid of the evidence together. The count then realized that the boy could tell on him and get him in legal trouble, so he came up with an idea. He brought the boy back to the castle and into the cellar, where he told his men to beat the boy half to death, they dragged him into another room (behind the white wall in the picture) and walled him in. The child died behind the wall. According to the legend, the boy will haunt anyone that tries to open up the wall and disturb his peace. He'll bring bad luck to both those who disturb him and the owner of the castle.
In 1879, the castle was sold to the Klingspor family. Count Philip Klingspor and his wife Maria and their children lived there. This blue room was the countess' sewing room. The walls contain arsenic which could be the reason why the paint has kept its color. The chairs and the sofas are worn out and have lost most of their vibrancy. They used to be as deep blue as the coat hanging over one of the chairs to the left. It's said that the countess is haunting the castle and comes to visit on the 2nd of May every year because it's her husband's name-day (name-days were more important than birthdays at the time). The countess will supposedly flip over the furniture if the staff doesn't place any tea and biscuits (fika, in Swedish) on the table on this day.
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Ekenäs had been in the hands of Banér before but it had also belonged to other noble families.
Svante Sture the Younger was actually a member of the Natt och Dag family, but due to being distantly related to the Stures, several Natt och Dags used the Sture surname despite not being actual members of the Sture dynasty (Sten Sture the Younger being the most famous example. Svante Sture the Older was not a Sture either, but he didn't use the Sture surname during his lifetime, it's been applies to him retroactively).