Castle Ruins – Gräfsnäs (3)

Gräfsnäs Castle (or Castle Ruin) today consists of an only partially restored ruin surrounded by a dry moat. Once upon a time though, this was a palatial fortress in Swedish-French Renaissance style, oringinally built in the mid 1550s.

The castle was burnt to the ground three times: 1634, 1734 and 1834; and after the last fire it was never fully restored again.

One old tale says that the fires were predicted already in the 1500s by a woman with reason to hate the family who owned the estate back then. She cast a curse on the place and said that it would burn three times, and after that remain derelict – which all came true…

Image of the castle drawn by Erik Dalbergh in the late 1600s.
(from Wikimedia)

The castle before the last fire in 1834.

The castle ruins are beautifully situated on a hill overlooking the lake Anten.

(I did not walk down/up these stairs…)

Finishing off our visit with tea/coffee at the modern café, also overlooking the lake.

Museum Railway (Anten - Gräfsnäs)

 

The sign on the letter box says:
The letter box
will be emptied by
railway staff
at the end of traffic days.

Anten is a lake north-west of Alingsås. It is also the name of an old railway station and the starting point of a 12 km museum railway. The station was not really on my list of places to visit; but when we passed the sign we found ourselves kind of automatically turning into that road anyway… Our dad was a big railway and steam train enthusiast; and our family holidays in the past always included stopping at any station house or railway museum!

There were no trains running on this day though, so we just made a short photo stop “for old times sake”. And then got back into the car and drove to the other end of the railway, which was on my list – for reasons you will find out more about in future posts.