A Remarkable Castle (Tjolöholm)

 

Monday 5 August saw us "on the road" again, for a longer day trip down to the coast, and a castle by the name of Tjolöholm.

 

A REMARKABLE CASTLE

The Tjolöholm estate has been known since the 13th century when it belonged to King Valdemar of Denmark, anc over the centuries it has been owned by many distinguished families. 

In 1892 the estate was bought by the Swedish-British couple James Fredrik and Blanche Dickson. The estate became Sweden's largest stud farm of its time, breeding racehorses. When the Dicksons bought the estate it had a manor house in the Italian Renaissance style, only 30 years old but in poor condition.

In 1897 the Dicksons announced an architecture competition to design an Elizabethan style castle. Architect Lars Israel Wahlman's entry 'Hobgoblin' came second, but he was still asked to build the castle. The prime inspiration for his design came from the British Arts and Crafts movement's love of natural materials and high-quality craftsmanship.

Shortly after construction began, James Fredrik Dickson died of blood poisoning. The castle was finished under the watchful eye of Blanche Dickson. In 1904 the castle was complete and the old manor house was demolished.

Before we went up to the castle itself, we had a salad lunch at their Garden Café.

Outdoors, there were Things Going On... We gathered that they were preparing for a live sing-along event with a nationally well known Swedish musician and TV host the same evening. (Our name for this kind of event is allsång = "everybody singing". It's quite a strong tradition in Sweden.) We had no plans to stay that long, though.

The concert stage

 

On a field nearby, there was also this strange sight: Lots and lots of conical tents. From something we overheard someone say, we got the impression that there was, or had been, a scout jamboree going on. I have not been able to find any proof of that online, though. (But I still can't think what else it might be...)

 

After lunch, we walked up to the castle. 

As the next guided tour was not on for a while yet, we chose to go round on our own, with the help of a brochure (taking us the same route through the rooms). We have visited the place once before, but that was many years ago now. On that occasion, I remember that we got a guide all to ourselves, as there weren't any other visitors at the time! But this time, we were far from alone.

The tour starts in the billiard room, with a stained glass skylight, and some sofas that one is allowed to sit on. I suppose the guide on the guided tours starts with a general introduction here. 

Looking down on the entrace hall from the floor above

  

Self-playing piano

Hidden light-switches detail

 

Blanche's desk in her private boudoir.

(Look closely, and you'll see me in the mirror...) 

There were originally three bathrooms in the castle, and six separate WCs. In the  shower (a novelty in its time) you got the water from the sides and from below as well as from above!

Nursery

Wardrobes

The hall of the Guest Wing

One of the guestrooms

View of the sea from the castle

Mushroom sculptures in the garden

Before we left the premises, we also visited their Wagon Museum. (So we got to see one of those on this holiday after all! - after having found another one closed on Saturday...). 

The strangest thing in there was this item, below - can you guess what it is?
 

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Answer:

After we left Tjolöholm, we felt we also wanted to get a proper feeling of actually having been at the seaside... But I'll save that for another post.