Renaissance castle of Vadstena

One of the most important castles of southern Sweden is the large Vadstena castle. The castle is one of the best renaissance castles in Sweden. The construction of the current castle was started in 1545 and it took a while it wasn’t finished until 1620.

The castle was originally intended to be a fortress by King Gustav Vasa but when he died his son decided to change the castle to the current renaissance appearance. The castle was an import stronghold for the Swedish king since it was protecting the route to the border with Denmark and with the frequent wars between the two countries the Swedish kings wanted a stronghold to protect their newfound independence from the Danish kings just over 20 years before the construction was begun.

The castle was built after the most modern European technology when it came to a defensive fortress. The castle was rectangular with round gun towers at every corner for the guns to defend the castle. There used to be some rampants around the castle as well to increase the protection of the castle. These has been demolished later to ensure the development of the current city.

The castle is pretty impressive from the outside with the large water filled moat around the strong walls of the castle. The entrance to the castle is across a little bridge and through a gate and then we can head for the ticket office to go inside the castle. Before we reach the ticket office we go through a large courtyard which is pretty impressive with the castle on all sides. There is an employee walking across the courtyard dressed in ancient cloth. I am not sure what she is doing but I guess she has some sort of function – but it was the only staff we saw in this old style clothing.

We get inside the castle to go through the building. The castle has some large rooms – but the castle only has a few furniture’s so it is pretty quick to walk around the castle – there is just a limited to how long you want to look at the empty rooms. There are some sections with different old dressed on display and a few rooms has some furniture. One of the most interesting parts of the castle is the church of the castle which is part of the ticket price when you visit.