Malmö Castle

Malmö, Sweden

Malmö Castle (Malmöhus) was founded in 1434 by King Eric of Pomerania. This structure was demolished in early 16th century. The castle acquired its present appearance following major reconstruction in the 1530’s, when King Christian III ordered the building of a modern fortress, splendid Renaissance castle and county governor´s residence, all on the one site. Historically, this fortress was one of the most important strongholds of Denmark.

Denmark´s coins were minted there in the Middle Ages. Crown Prince Frederick held wild parties in the 16th century. Prisoners were beheaded in the courtyard in the 19th century. Malmöhus has now been restored in the spirit of the 16th century and is part of the Malmö Museums, the largest museum in southern Sweden. The castle is part of Sweden´s cultural heritage and is managed by the National Property Board.

The castle was for five years (1568-1573) the prison of James Hepburn, 4th Earl of Bothwell, third husband of Mary, Queen of Scots. The earl was taken into custody on the orders of the Protestant Danish king Frederick II of Denmark when his ship ran aground in Bergen, Norway during a storm. He was sent to Malmö Castle to be imprisoned, although he had previously been released from Tower of London for lack of evidence in the murder of Mary's second husband, Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley. As a bachelor, Frederick II courted Elizabeth I of England and was made a Knight of the Garter. Some sources suggest a second reason for the involvement in this matter by the Danish king; he is thought to have held hopes of collecting a ransom from Scotland. However, the Earl of Bothwell died in 1578 in Dragsholm Castle, Zealand, where he had been moved after the first five years in Danish captivity, without ever being the subject of Danish-Scottish negotiations for his release.

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Address

Malmöhusvägen 6, Malmö, Sweden
See all sites in Malmö

Details

Founded: 1434
Category: Castles and fortifications in Sweden
Historical period: Kalmar Union (Sweden)

More Information

www.malmo.se
en.wikipedia.org
www.malmotown.com

Rating

4.1/5 (based on Google user reviews)

Interesting Sites Nearby


Malmö Stortorget (0,8 km)
St. Peter's Church (1 km)


City Hall (27,4 km)
Charlottenborg Palace (26,5 km)
Christiansborg Palace (26,8 km)
Rundetårn (27,2 km)
Trinitatis Church (27,2 km)
Amalienborg (26,3 km)
Caritas Well (27,3 km)
Rosenborg Castle (27,3 km)
National Museum of Denmark (27,1 km)

User Reviews

Bren Verde (11 months ago)
Very nice museum and also very cheap. Inside there are 3 museums and u can visit also the museum across the street in the same price . Around 5€ entrance fee for adult.
Dhaval Patel (11 months ago)
it was wonderful museum, go up stairs and spend much time over there, if u r history lover. very good information and aquarium on ground floor, do not forget to visit wind mill behind the building. you can spend almost 3-4 hours easily in museum and you will not realize at all...!
Steffon Cumberbatch (12 months ago)
Malmö Castle is beautiful inside and out. I recommend taking a nice stroll around the perimeter of the castle and taking in the beauty of the grass and water features against the castle itself. Inside the castle there is no shortage of interesting historical information, beautiful artwork, and ornate decor. It was definitely worth stopping by while we were in town.
Kendra Lamont (13 months ago)
Very cool museum. Kind of a weird layout so lots of walking and backtracking to see it all. A little spooky with the human skeleton and the weird music.
Marcus Forelius (14 months ago)
Pretty cool castle museum with an interestingly wide variety of exhibits. The history portion is top notch but a little twisty-turns in its layout. For me that just added to its charm. There was a portion on the military and royal history of the fortress and an aquarium, which is certainly an interesting mix. I especially liked the 20-40’s fashion and the exhibit on Capa’s photos from the Spanish Civil War, a random and awesome find. If you are in Copenhagen for a couple of days come to Malmö and come to this museum.
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Wawel Hill – a Jurassic limestone rock, a dominant feature in the landscape of Kraków, have provided a safe haven for people who have settled here since the Paleolithic Age. It is supposed that the Slav people started living on Wawel hill as early as the 7th century. Early medieval legends tell stories about a dreadful dragon that lived in a cave on Wawel Hill, about his slayer Krakus, and about the latter’s daughter Wanda, who drowned herself in the Vistula rather than marry a German knight. Towards the end of the first millennium A.D Wawel began to play the role of the centre of political power.In the 9th century it became the principal fortified castrum of the Vislane tribe. The first historical ruler of Poland, Miesco I (c.965-992) of the Piast dynasty as well as his successors: Boleslas the Brave (992-1025) and Miesco II (1025-1034) chose Wawel Hill as one of their residences.

At that time Wawel became one of the main Polish centres of Christianity. The first early Romanesque and Romanesque sacral buildings were raised here, including a stone cathedral that was erected after the bishopric of Kraków was established in the year 1000.

During the reign of Casimir the Restorer (1034-1058) Wawel became a significant political and administrative centre for the Polish State. Casimir’s son, Boleslas the Bold (1058-1079) began the construction of a second Romanesque cathedral, which was finished by Boleslas the Wrymouth (1102-1138). In his last will of 1138, this prince divided Poland into districts, and provided that Kraków was to be the residence of the senior prince. In 1291 the city of Kraków along with Wawel Hill temporarily fell under the Czech rule, and Wenceslas II from the Premysl dynasty was crowned King of Poland in Wawel cathedral.

In 1306 the Duke of Kuyavia Ladislas the Short (1306-1333) entered Wawel and was crowned King of Poland in the Cathedral in 1320. It was the first historically recorded coronation of a Polish ruler on Wawel Hill. Around that time, at the initiative of Ladislas the Short, the construction of the third Gothic cathedral began, the castle was expanded and the old wooden and earthen fortifications were replaced by brick ones. The tomb of Ladislas the Short in the cathedral started a royal necropolis of Polish kings in Krakow.The last descendant of the Piast dynasty, Casimir the Great (1333-1370) brought Wawel to a state of unprecedented splendour. In 1364 the expanded gothic castle witnessed the marriage of Casimir’s granddaughter Elizabeth to Charles IV accompanied by a famous convention of kings and princes, subsequently entertained by a rich burgher Wierzynek. The accession to the throne in 1385 of Jadwiga from the Hungarian dynasty of Andegavens, and her marriage to a Lithuanian prince Ladislas Jagiello (1386-1434) started another era of prosperity for Wawel. The royal court employed local and western European artists and also Rus painters. During the reign of Casimir Jagiellon (1447-1492) the silhouette of the hill was enriched by three high brick towers: the Thieves’ Tower, the Sandomierz Tower and the Senatorial Tower. The first humanists in Poland and tutors to the king’s sons: historian Jan Długosz and an Italian by the name Filippo Buonacorsi (also known as Callimachus) worked there at that time.

The Italian Renaissance arrived at Wawel in the early 16th century. King Alexander (1501-1506) and his brother Sigismund I the Old (1506-1548) commissioned the construction of a new palace in place of the Gothic residence, with an impressive large courtyard with arcaded galleries which was completed about 1540. Sigismund’s patronage also left an indelible impression in the cathedral, where a family chapel was erected, known today as Sigismund’s Chapel - the work of Bartolomeo of Berrecci Florence, and through various foundations, one of which was that of a large bell, called the Sigismund to commemorate the king. Close artistic and cultural relations with Italy were strengthened in 1518 by the king’s marriage to Bona Sforza. Alongside Italian artists, German architects, wood workers, painters and metal smiths worked for the king. The last descendant of the Jagiellonian dynasty, Sigismund II Augustus (1548-1572), enriched the castle’s interiors with a magnificent collection of tapestries woven in Brussels. In the “Golden Age” of Polish culture Wawel became one of the main centres of humanism in Europe.

The reign of Sigismund III Waza (1587-1632) also made a strong impression on the history of Wawel. After a fire in the castle in 1595 the king rebuilt the burned wing of the building in the early Baroque style. The relocation of the royal court to Warsaw was the cause of a slow but nevertheless steady deterioration in the castle’s condition. The monarchs visited Kraków only occasionally. Restoration of the castle was undertaken during the reign of John III Sobieski, the Wettins and Stanislas Augustus to counteract neglect.

After Poland had lost its independence in 1795, the troops of partitioning nations, Russia, Prussia and Austria, subsequently occupied Wawel which finally passed into the hands of the Austrians. The new owners converted the castle and some of the secular buildings into a military hospital, and demolished some others, including churches. After the period of the Free City of Kraków (1815-1846) Wawel was once more annexed by Austria and turned into a citadel dominating the city. By the resolution passed by the Seym of Galicia in 1880, the castle was presented as a residence to the Emperor of Austria Franz Josef I. The Austrian troops left the hill between 1905-1911. At the turn of the 20th century a thorough restoration of the cathedral was conducted, and shortly afterwards a process of restoration of the royal castle began which lasted several decades.

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