Johannesberg Castle

Rimbo, Sweden

There has been a castle or stronghold in Johannesberg since the 11th century. The hill surrounded by water has been easy to defend. During the 12th century a chief named Gutti lived here and the whole area became Gutti´s area, later on Gottröra, which is the name of the place today. Gutti divided the area into two parts, the south and the north. The south part – presently Johannesberg – was called Djursby.

The owner of Djursby during the later part of the 17th century was Johan Leijonhufvud. He gave the estate to a close relative, Adam Lewenhaupt, who named it Johannesberg after Johan Leijonhufvud. Lewenhaupt died in Russian captivity and was never to see Johannesberg again. After Lewenhaupt the estate was owned by different nobility families – Banér, Gyllenstierna, Horn af Åminne and Lagergren. At the end of the 19th century Johannesberg was taken over by a Mr Grönwall, a wholesale dealer. During his time the main building unfortunately burnt down. The next owner, Mr Conti, built the present mail building around the turn of the century.

The estate was bought in 1930’s by Bergengren, who at the end of the decade owned many estates in Sweden, England and France. Bergengren is still the owner of the agricultural part of Johannesberg.

During World War II Bergengren rented out the main building and several crofters cottages to the Swedish government and under the management of the manager for the Criminal Technical Institution, Harry Söderman, Norwegian refugees were here officially beeing educated to police men. In fact they were educated to join the resistance movement. At the maximum there were about 1500 Norwegians here for education. Many of them have through comrade clubs kept in touch with each other after their return to Norway. They have collected money and this resulted in a monument beeing raised in the castle park at Johannesberg in June 1990.

In 1987 Johannesberg was bought by a private company. It was restored, the two wings were built ant the estate was ready to take into use in the springtime 1989. The golf course with 27 holes was set up and opened in 1991. A club house with swimming pool was ready at the same time. The castle is owned and operated since 1995 by the family Manfred and Mariette Kuhl.

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Address

Norrtälje V 77, Gottröra, Rimbo, Sweden
See all sites in Rimbo

Details

Founded: ca. 1900
Category: Palaces, manors and town halls in Sweden
Historical period: Union with Norway and Modernization (Sweden)

More Information

www.johannesbergsslott.se
www.uppsalatourism.se

Rating

4.2/5 (based on Google user reviews)

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User Reviews

Nat Ho (4 months ago)
Remote and not much here - unless you are visiting for a conference or Christmas dinner and don't mind the travel.
stephanie sarpong (9 months ago)
The waitress just left us after the first course. Didn't ask if we needed anything or if we would like something. We paid 175 SEK per person (almost 20 USD) for what seemed like one course. I repeat ONE course!! With half cooked risotto. We had to go up to the front desk to ask if there was any dessert and our so called waitress just said I'll check after she had rudely said: "What else do you want?". We ended up with another waitress who wouldn't speak Swedish to us even though we spoke to her in Swedish. She came back three more times and still kept speaking English to us. She told us that as dessert there would be fruit salad but they took 30 minutes to make it! We were the only ones there so it's not like the service was bad because of busyness. I don't mean to hate on the receptionist(s) at all because they were actually nice to us. Other than them. This. Was. Terrible.
Donkey Sobral (10 months ago)
Decent rooms. Decent location. Great staff.
Jawwad Iqbal (10 months ago)
Superb place , very green, calm and gives you royal feel
Water& Mirror (11 months ago)
We stayed here for conference of around 100 people. It is nice for having stay away from city life so that you can concentrate well on the subject of conference .provides nice stay and food , timely preparation and yes nice people.
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In Roman times, the Porta Nigra was part of a system of four city gates, one of which stood at each side of the roughly rectangular Roman city. The Porta Nigra guarded the northern entry to the Roman city, while the Porta Alba (White Gate) was built in the east, the Porta Media (Middle Gate) in the south, and the Porta Inclyta (Famous Gate) in the west, next to the Roman bridge across the Moselle. The gates stood at the ends of the two main streets of the Roman Trier, one of which led north-south and the other east-west. Of these gates, only the Porta Nigra still exists today.

In the early Middle Ages the Roman city gates were no longer used for their original function and their stones were taken and reused for other buildings. Also iron and lead braces were broken out of the walls of the Porta Nigra for reuse. Traces of this destruction are still clearly visible on the north side of the gate.

After 1028, the Greek monk Simeon lived as a hermit in the ruins of the Porta Nigra. After his death (1035) and sanctification, the Simeonstift monastery was built next to the Porta Nigra to honor him. Saving it from further destruction, the Porta Nigra was transformed into a church: The inner court of the gate was roofed and intermediate ceilings were inserted. The two middle storeys of the former gate were converted into church naves: the upper storey being for the monks and the lower storey for the general public. The ground floor with the large gates was sealed, and a large outside staircase was constructed alongside the south side (the town side) of the gate, up to the lower storey of the church. A small staircase led further up to the upper storey. The church rooms were accessible through former windows of the western tower of the Porta Nigra that were enlarged to become entrance doors (still visible today). The top floor of the western tower was used as church tower, the eastern tower was leveled, and an apse added at its east side. An additional gate - the much smaller Simeon Gate - was built adjacent to the East side of the Porta Nigra and served as a city gate in medieval times.

In 1802 Napoleon Bonaparte dissolved the church in the Porta Nigra and the monastery beside it, along with the vast majority of Trier"s numerous churches and monasteries. On his visit to Trier in 1804, Napoleon ordered that the Porta Nigra be converted back to its Roman form. Only the apse was kept; but the eastern tower was not rebuilt to its original height. Local legend has it that Napoleon originally wanted to completely tear down the church, but locals convinced him that the church had actually been a Gaulish festival hall before being turned into a church. Another version of the story is that they told him about its Roman origins, persuading him to convert the gate back to its original form.

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