Bergkvara Castle

Bergkvara Castle
Sweden

Ruins of Bergkvara Castle
Coordinates 56°52′5″N 14°43′27″E / 56.86806°N 14.72417°E / 56.86806; 14.72417Coordinates: 56°52′5″N 14°43′27″E / 56.86806°N 14.72417°E / 56.86806; 14.72417
Type Castle

Bergkvara Castle is a castle in Sweden.

Described in the Nordisk familjebok as "one of Sweden's oldest mansions, located at a lake of the same name, in Värend, Bergunda and Öjaby parishes, Kinnevalds district and Kronoberg County, 6 km. west of Växjö". [1]

Bergkvara was an "ornamental landscape" whose residence was rebuilt as a tower house in the 1470s. The tower house was originally surrounded by two moats, serving as a system of defense. In the late 17th Century, the inner moat had been partly filled and served as a fishpond while the outer moat served more as a ditch marking the limit of the castle bailey. By this time the residence had moved to the outer moat, as the tower house had lost its original function. [2]

The moats are thought to be medieval, while the reconstructed residence dates from at least the 16th Century. In total, "Bergkvara was a residence for noblemen from the fifteenth century until the 1580s. Thereafter it functioned as a manor for absent noblemen who never resided here and seem to have visited Bergkvara very seldom." [2]

References

  1. ↑ Various (1904). Nordisk familjebok (in Swedish). Retrieved July 29, 2014.
  2. 1 2 Hansson, Martin (2006). Aristocratic Landscape. The Spatial Ideology of the Medieval Aristocracy. Lund Studies in Historical Archaeology. Lund University. p. 224. ISBN 91-22-02154-X. ISSN 1653-1183. Retrieved July 29, 2014.

See also

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