Perched on a limestone cliff four hundred feet above Lake Vättern, Brahehus was a fancy holiday home and never actually meant to withstand a siege, which is lucky because its main defensive strategy seems to be “hoping the enemy is afraid of heights.”
Built in the mid-seventeenth century, the castle was intended as a grand manor for the Count’s wife, Christina Catharina, though she unfortunately passed away before she could enjoy the privilege of bracing herself against the chilly winds from the lake.
The whole arrangement eventually came to a crashing halt after the Count died in 1680. The Swedish Crown decided they quite liked the look of all that noble land and reclaimed it, leaving Brahehus to face the elements without a dedicated cleaning crew. A forest fire in 1708 finished the job, gutting the wooden interior and leaving behind the skeletal stone shell that remains today. It’s been fixed up a few times, but it’s still open to the elements and anyone can freely access the site at any time.
The interior of the castle.
The castle is now next to a service station which is effectively a very scenic leg-stretch while driving the E4 motorway. It’s a beautiful thing and it was helpful that there were a number of interpretation boards around the site to explain it.
There are two symmetrical side towers in front of the building.
And inside one of these towers. I couldn’t work out the floor line as there appear to be two former floor levels.
The view from the window, it was certainly a rather decent holiday home with this sort of outlook out the front.