Just south of Ulricehamn in Västergötland is Torpa stone house beautifully situated on Lake Åsunden. We had recently heard about this castle and decided to go there to have a look around. The castle dates back to the end of the 15th century and has been in the same family for seventeen generations, you guys!
The castle has a royal lustre as the daughter of the house, Katarina Stenbock, became Gustav Vasa's third wife in the mid-16th century. It was also during this time that the house acquired its current appearance.
We chose to go on a guided tour to learn as much of the castle's history as possible. A small mistake on our part was that during Easter there were only tours that dealt with Easter traditions and celebrations. However, the guide mixed this up well with exciting information about the house. The tours are held every hour but you can also look around yourself and read signs that tell the history of the house. Good if you have missed something or want to read more.
After starting with a tour of the chapel and the dungeon (heaven and hell?), we walked on towards the magnificent halls of the castle that were set for a party. The halls are incredibly beautiful and adorned with paintings on both walls and ceilings. It reminds me a bit of a smaller version of Läckö Castlebut then it's also from roughly the same era.
No castle can be without its ghosts, and of course Torpa has a number of them. It seems to be the daughters of the house who have had the most reason to leave. For example, one daughter is said to have been walled up alive when she returned from a trip to plague-stricken Denmark. Fear of spreading the disease at Torpa made her father see this as the only solution. Another daughter died of a broken heart after her lover, a Danish prisoner at the castle, was killed by her father.
When you visit Torpa, you can't miss the famous bump. So what is a hump? It's German for "sejdel" and it was bought in 1581 to be used for celebrations. As glass was expensive, there was only one large sip filled with wine that was passed around between guests. How a 16th-century glass sceptre created for celebrations could have survived for several hundred years is beyond me. In any case, here it is, well protected in a glass case, watched over with a stern gaze by Gustaf Olofsson Stenbock.
Torpa was not inhabited for very long, and a timber house was built right next to the castle as early as the mid-17th century. There is a preserved copperplate engraving with a picture of the house and based on this picture, the current owner is building a concrete replica. The house is not quite finished yet, but it will be exciting to see the end result.
Adjacent to the house is the farm's old warehouse where there is a castle café. Here you can both have coffee and have lunch or dinner. Henrik had an Easter plate and I had a deer plate with meat from the area. A good and pleasant stop before or after the tour of the castle.
For those with a motorhome, I would also like to recommend their small caravan park. Just between the restaurant and the house there is room for a couple of motorhomes down by the lake. Here you can stay for free overnight. There are no special facilities but who needs it when you have both ghosts and castles around the corner. 🙂
