Gräfsnäs Castle Ruins, Sollebrunn, Sweden

Gräfsnäs Castle today consists of a heavily restored main building with barred windows and surrounding dry moat. The ruins are remnants of the original palatial fortress built in Swedish-French Renaissance style. The castle, which met with such a tragic fate, was constructed in c. 1571 and belonged to many different owners (like Leijonhufvud, Sparre and Holstein-Augustenburg families) before it was finally abandoned in the late 19th century. The tragic coincidence was that Gräfsnäs was damaged by fire in every one hundred years (1634, 1734 and 1834).

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User Reviews

Eric Jeurissen (2 years ago)
Very nice green environment, bbq possibilities and swimming / beach-like area. Nice ancient wooden houses

H Baramakeh (2 years ago)
Swedish historical place, nice place to see

Lars Andersson (2 years ago)
Ubuntu

averno schaller (3 years ago)
A very beautiful castle ruin that is surrounded by a park and forest. If you go to the south of the park you have a magnificent view over the lake Anten. You can walk down to the lake for a swim or just take a nice walk.

Olav van Gerven (6 years ago)
The ancient ruin of the castle in Gräfsnäs, Sollebrunn, is located at the end of a small road. Since we visited the place more then ten years ago for the first time, a local group of people have put a lot of effords to make the ruin accesable to the public. There is sufficient parkingspace close to the area. In close distance to the ruin, there is a swimmingarea and a small restaurant. If you ar not interested in the ruin itself, you can leave your car at the parkinglot and go for a walk or just sit on one of the benches at the lake and enjoy the view.

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Photo from Flickr, copyright Dan Lundberg

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Hagios Demetrios

The Church of Saint Demetrius, or Hagios Demetrios, is the main sanctuary dedicated to Saint Demetrius, the patron saint of Thessaloniki. It is part of the site Palaeochristian and Byzantine Monuments of Thessaloniki on the list of World Heritage Sites by UNESCO since 1988.

The first church on the spot was constructed in the early 4th century AD, replacing a Roman bath. A century later, a prefect named Leontios replaced the small oratory with a larger, three-aisled basilica. Repeatedly gutted by fires, the church eventually was reconstructed as a five-aisled basilica in 629–634. This was the surviving form of the church much as it is today. The most important shrine in the city, it was probably larger than the local cathedral. The historic location of the latter is now unknown.

The church had an unusual shrine called the ciborium, a hexagonal, roofed structure at one side of the nave. It was made of or covered with silver. The structure had doors and inside was a couch or bed. Unusually, it did not hold any physical relics of the saint. The ciborium seems to have been a symbolic tomb. It was rebuilt at least once.

The basilica is famous for six extant mosaic panels, dated to the period between the latest reconstruction and the inauguration of the Byzantine Iconoclasm in 730. These mosaics depict St. Demetrius with officials responsible for the restoration of the church (called the founders, ktetors) and with children. An inscription below one of the images glorifies heaven for saving the people of Thessalonica from a pagan Slavic raid in 615.

Thessaloniki became part of the Ottoman Empire in 1430. About 60 years later, during the reign of Bayezid II, the church was converted into a mosque, known as the Kasımiye Camii after the local Ottoman mayor, Cezeri Kasım Pasha. The symbolic tomb however was kept open for Christian veneration. Other magnificent mosaics, recorded as covering the church interior, were lost either during the four centuries when it functioned as a mosque (1493–1912) or in the Great Thessaloniki Fire of 1917 that destroyed much of the city. It also destroyed the roof and upper walls of the church. Black-and-white photographs and good watercolour versions give an idea of the early Byzantine craftsmanship lost during the fire.

Following the Great Fire of 1917, it took decades to restore the church. Tombstones from the city"s Jewish cemetery - destroyed by the Greek and Nazi German authorities - were used as building materials in these restoration efforts in the 1940s. Archeological excavations conducted in the 1930s and 1940s revealed interesting artifacts that may be seen in a museum situated inside the church"s crypt. The excavations also uncovered the ruins of a Roman bath, where St. Demetrius was said to have been held prisoner and executed. A Roman well was also discovered. Scholars believe this is where soldiers dropped the body of St. Demetrius after his execution. After restoration, the church was reconsecrated in 1949.

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Gräfsnäs Castle Ruins

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