The Castle of Gräfsnäs has a long and exciting history from the ages of the Knights until today. A thousand-year period .
The lake Anten
The origin of the name Anten was on the 1200th century ”Alti”.
The word is from the old word ”alpt”, which means "swan".
The name of tha lake was in the ancient time "the Swan Lake". Still you can find a lot of swanes in the lake. The lake is about 18 km2. There is a lot of old legends about the mermaid Alta who lived in the lake.
The big cliff on the east side of the lake Anten is known as "The cliff of Gomer". just beside is the small island "Loholm" where the castle was situated on the 14th century and later on. The castle was owned by Gudmar Månsson af Hjortehuvud, also known as Knight Gomer, who was the chief judge in Västergötland. Gudmar had two sons, Magnus and Ulf. Magnus was married to one of the daughters to chief judge in Uppland, Birger Persson of Finsta. Magnus later succeed his father as the chief judge in Västergötland and tooked over the castle. Also Ulf was married. He married the other daughter, Birgitta.
The wish of Birgitta was to go to a monastery, but at the age of 13 she was married to the 18 yaers old Ulf Gudmarsson. The moved to Ulvåsa gård in Östergötland and got 8 children, 4 sons and 4 daughters. Birgitta was later known as the Saint Birgitta.
Gräfsnäs slott
The Castle of Loholm was later burn down in a revolt. As a replacement the Castle of Gräfsnäs was built. The eldest part in the castle is from the middle of 1550-ies. The gun towers of the castle was as same as the two on the castles of Vadstena and Kalmar.
In that time Gräfsnäs was located close by to the border of Denmark and Norway. In this area there was a battle during the Nordiska Sjuårskriget (The Nordic 7-years war) in the year of 1566 between Sweden and Denmark.
Unfortunately the defence of the castle was not strong enough, in the year of 1612 the Danish succeed to conquer and plunder the Castle.
When the castle of Gräfsnäs was built under the management of Ebba Eriksdotter Vasa, a wealthy and powerful woman, a lot of peasants had to work under very hard conditions. In many cases as slaves. According to the legend one of these were a woman of foreign extraction, "with dark skin and black eyes, a Spanisk gypsy".
Many years earlier a young Knight brought a foreign woman with him back to Sweden. He had to disclaim her after demands from his relatives. Maybe it's was her grandchild that now contributed to the fall of the Castle.
According to the legend, a dark night the woman, forced to slavery at the construction, hide something in the castle walls and cursed the castle:
-”No family should own the castle for more than three generations and it should burn three times every 100 years and after that never be rebuilt”.
The curse took place, the castle burnt down 1634, 1734 and finally 1834. After that it was never rebuilt. No family owned it formore than three generations.
The Knight Game
Even in our time you could have a retrospect of the time of the Knights.Every year, normally during the firts weekend of July, there will be held a "Knight Game" at the Castle.
The display of the Knights starts at 14.30 (2.30pm) and ends about 15.45 (3.45pm). This means that you have time to catch the train from Anten at 13.00 (1pm). You can buy the tickets to the display onsite in Gräfsnäs.
The display of the Knights is performed by "The Knight of Dalaborg".
To take a bath or to play
Gräfsnäs has a nice beach with jetties in the lake. Admission free. There is also a large play ground in the park. Here is also a small café and restaurant.
Why don't you stay for a couple of hours and take the next train back?
If you want to know more about the summer program for the park, contact the Tourist information bureau in Alingsås or phone+46 (0) 322 61 62 00.
Källa: Bjärke Hembygdsförening