Pupletts in Sweden: Öland (24-28th May)

On the second day of our trip we headed out to Borgholm castle - we'd made it here last time but it was closed and we didn't get to do the tour. This time we timed it a bit better and the tour was definitely worth it - we spent several hours walking around the ruins.

Borgholm was built before the end of the 13th century and has been rebuilt many times. It was almost completely destroyed by a fire on 14 October 1806.

The castle was important in the wars between Denmark and Sweden, and was attacked several times by the Danes. In 1611 Borgholm was surrendered to the Danes and then retaken later that year. It was again surrendered after a siege in 1612, but handed back to Sweden after the Treaty of Knäred.

In the courtyard about to head in

Heading in

Inside the entrance, this area served as a stable

Ornate Entrance inside

Stepping into the inner courtyard

Remains of a multi-floored hall

Remains of the hall

Tomas found this little passage between the walls

Inside the ruins of the tower

Ruins of the tower

Inside the room at the base of the tower

Looking out from the tower to the courtyard

We were able to head up to the top of a platform alongside the tower, through a spiral stone staircase:

Going up

View of another tower from the top

Flat platform alongside the tower

Tower

Looking along the top of the wall - this shot shows how thick they were

Birds nesting in alcoves in the tower

Model of Borgholm - the house shaped platform at the bottom is the one we stood on in the photos about

Inside one of the towers was an exhibition about the royalty that visited the castle. King Karl X Gustav lived in the castle in 1651 and made the hunting wall in Ottenby (that we saw last visit) to allow access to fallow deer. This wasn't a very popular move, as many of the residents of the island were poor and dividing of the land to allow for royal hunting ground further removed land from the peasants.

Karl X Gustav was notorious as a man of big appetites (for food, war and women) and before he died he had a waste measurement of over 2m. He died at 37, but he was famous for increasing the size of the Swedish empire to the biggest it had ever been and would ever be.

Tomas tries on a robe waistline that represented King Karl X Gustav's waistline before his death

All three kids could fit in

We then passed into a gallery of photos - the kids were most interested in two of the pictures:

Gustav II Adolfs död i slaget vid Lutzen av Carl Wahlbom (National Museum, Stockholm) - Gustav II Adolfs death in battle of Luzen, by Carl Wahlbom

According to Cameron, the above picture is:
"The battle between drunk people and sensible people, thats why this guy (the man at the bottom left in black) is falling off his horse and almost stabbing himself in the face."

Tom's favourite picture was:

Okänd flamländsk konstnär. Portrait av avliden gosse med vanitasmotiv - Portrait of deceased boy with vanity motive, unknown Flemmish Artist

Ok, so the theme was disturbing, but in Tom's words:
"He's sitting on his brother's skull and the other baby is coming to give him a crown"

Details of the fall of Borgholm in 1611

Graffiti etched into the walls, some dates to the 1800s and earlier

Ruined coat of arms

Ruins of the kitchen

Us in the Tower of Love

Kids on the Iron Throne of Wester.. Öland

There was a wedding at the castle and pictures being taken

Next door to the castle was Solliden Palace the Royal Palace of Sweden on Öland. We didn't make it there this time, but I wanted to share a funny story.

In 2007 the Italian company Calzificio Pinelli sued Solliden for breaching its trademark on the product Solidea.

Solliden was built in 1906 and the name was registered as a trademark in 2005. Calzificio complained that their trademark was infringed upon by the similarity of the names. The patent and registration office took two years but decided that it was unlikely that the Swedish Royal Palace Solliden would be confused with Calzificio Pinellis Solidea brand of underwear in sizes "Personaility Extra Large", "Silver Support" and "Madman."

(reference: The Local Newspaper (13 April 2007))

We spent the afternoon back at the campground having a paddle at the beach and a ride of the bikes: