Stjernsund

Stjernsunds Slott (castle) is situated near Askersund at the northern end of Lake Vättern. The manor was founded in 1637 and has been owned by three different noble families, and also, back in the 1800s, by the royal family.  Since 1951, it belongs to The Royal Swedish Academy of Letters, History and Antiquities. The castle as museum is open to the public in the summer; and in a separate building down by the lake below the hill there is a Castle Café, where we had the pleasure of having lunch on the third day of our trip.

▲ Inside the café/restaurant ▼

After lunch we went for a little walk up to the castle and around the estate:

As decorations in the path leading up to the castle, they had used old millstones.

The front of the castle. We did not go inside (I think there were only guided tours).

There was a small exhibition in a couple of rooms next to the reception and shop in one of the wings. I did not take any photos in there but I bought some postcards.

The last owners of the castle before the estate was bequeathed to the Academy.

And this is the view they were looking at from those stairs.

Down by the lake near the café

Wooden owl on a pole down by the jetty.

Huge tree at the gable of the café.

Farm buildings on the estate

The Stjernsund estate is also known as the origin of the Swedish Red and White breed of dairy cattle. (I did not know that before our visit, though…)

This postcard shows a cow named Perla. On the back of the card is printed “f. 8/9/1895”. I think that’s the cow’s birthdate rather than the date when the photo was taken. (How old does a cow get??)

Linking (the old postcards) to Postcards for the Weekend 51

Outdoor Wednesday - Alingsås (4)

Not far from the centre of Alingsås we find Nolhaga, a big estate once aquired by Jonas Alströmer (see my first post about Alingsås) in 1725. The present manor house (a bit pretentiously called "slott"=palace) was built a bit later though (by another owner), around 1780. Since the 1920's the estate belongs to the town, and serves as public recreation park.
 
Here are some more views from around the park:

Tidy allotments

"Fishing Villa"

Note the shape of the weather vane on the tower!

Sheep

Pigs

Mini pigs (for mini kids)

 

Ducks

More ducks

Meandering river with fountains, bridges and water lilies

Parking for boats

 

Touristing part II – Hofsnäs Manor

My brother and I have continued to play tourists this week (three days in a row). We both felt we could do with a proper break from the usual stuff for a few days. So I’ve got lots of photos from “out of town” for a change – enough for several blog posts, I think.

In this one it’s still Thurday afternoon and we have just left Torpa Castle, and are driving along a narrow little countryside road…

The landscape here consists of agricultural land and decidious forest. Even if we did not know, it would not be hard to guess that we’re on the land of some big old estate.

Huge old trees on both sides of the road give a clear hint that we’re approaching our next stop.

There it is, a glimpse of a big white house…

Hofsnäs, a former manor house, is now a restaurant and café. The estate is owned by the town of Borås since 1964 and serves as recereation area for town-dwellers who wish to get out into the countryside now and then.

The manor house we see today is not nearly as old as Torpa, but already back in the late 1400s there was some kind of castle here. In 1552, King Gustav I (Gustav Vasa) gave the estate to his father-in-law Gustaf Stenbock (the third owner of Torpa). In the late 1600s, however, Hofsnäs had lost its significance and fell into disrepair. A new manor house was built in 1854, on the same spot as the original one. It got burned down in a fire in 1923, but was rebuilt in 1924.

It is beautifully situated, overlooking vast lawns and the lake. On a sunny and warm day the place will be swarming with people picknicking and bathing.

Not quite the weather for such activities on the day we were visiting, though. It had been raining heavily earlier in the day and was still rather chilly.

Personally, I prefer to just look at lakes and seas anyway, rather than being in them or on them…

The 17th century wooden farmhouse is now a crafts shop:

Below examples of wire craft also called hobo’s craft
(Swedish: luffarslöjd)

There is still also active farming going on at Hofsnäs:

We stared at the cows for a while, and they stared back:

Enough sightseeing for one day. Time to go back home!