Road Trip 2025 (2) - Löfstad Castle

Saturday, 9 August - Part 2
Löfstad Castle

From Brahehus Castle ruin (at Gränna, by Lake Vättern) we intended to drive straight to our destination for the next two nights: Linköping, the 5th largest city in Sweden. From the map, it also seemed easy enough to visit their Old Town museum area (with lots of old wooden buildings) on the outskirts, before driving further into the city to find our hotel. 

And surely there must be signs to show us the way there from the main road (E4)...

(You'll find our road trip map repeated at the bottom of this post.) 

On we drove; and we knew we were approaching Linköping, because of big aeroplanes on display just by the road... (Saab in Linköping has produced several types of aeroplanes over the years.)

We did not yet see any sign or exit though. And after a while we started to feel like the city must be even bigger than we remembered it...

Then I noted that a sign by the side of the road now only told us the distance to Norrköping - the next city along the road - without mentioning Linköping any more... So I started to suspect that somehow we must have missed the exit. (In retrospect, we arrived at the conclusion that this could have happened while we were in a queue behind some horse transport vehicles blocking the view for us.) 

While we were discussing this, a sign turned up pointing to Löfstad Slott (Castle). Then I knew for sure that we must have passed Linköping quite a while ago; because when planning the trip, I had thought about trying to work a visit to that castle into our travel plan - but had scrapped that idea, because I found it to be too far in the wrong direction!

Ah well. Now we were here anyway, so might just as well have a look, while getting our bearings again! Especially since there was also a sign saying Café... Which we really felt in need of by now!

My brother consulting the map on his phone - again...

Löfstad (or Lövstad) Castle is situated between Linköping and Norrköping in the province of Östergötland. The building is from the 17th century and came under the ownership of the Östergötlands museum in 1940. The castle is now a museum open with guided tours.

No guided tour available when we arrived, so we just looked at it from the outside.

The garden centre with café was open, though, and we had some refreshments there!  

Down by the road and car park there is a tiny yellow wooden gatehouse. 

A sign nearby tells the story of a woman who used to live there:

 

 

Sofie in the Box 
Carolina Sofie Eliasson was one of many who worked at the castle but didn't live there. She grew up nearby, emigrated to America in 1890, but moved back to Sweden and Löfstad in the beginning of the 20th century, now with a small son, Algot. They moved into the gatehouse down by the road, resembling a little box; which is why she came to be known as "Sofie in the Box". For a while, she shared the house with another woman. They then tied a string across the room, to keep little Algot from crawling over to the wrong side.
Sofie used to milk the cows on the estate, but also helped with cleaning inside the castle, laundry, and even scrubbing the stone walls.
On a summer evening, people would gather down at Sofie's house to watch cars passing on the road - a popular pastime!

 

  
For your convenience, I've decided to repeat this map at the bottom of each road trip post.