The castle ruins in Gamla Höjentorp dates back to the 13th century. The castle is said to have been donated to the bishop of Skara in 1284, but was then returned to the crown at the time of Gustav Vasa’s reformation. At the middle of the 17th century, Queen Kristina gave the castle as a wedding gift to Magnus Gabriel de la Gardie’s wife, Maria Eufrosyne. In 1722 the castle burnt down and it is said that Queen Ulrika Eleonora was visiting at the time. She watched the fire from a nearby hill, which was then named after this Drottningkullen (the Queen Hill).
Today only the ruins of the basement remain of the original castle, but the place bears witness of the importance of this area in the Middle Ages, which was also when Skara had its period of greatness. In the overgrown castle garden are beautiful ashes and lime-trees and in the slope down towards the Garden Lake it smells of ramsons and other rare plants.
References:Rosenborg Palace was built in the period 1606-34 as Christian IV’s summerhouse just outside the ramparts of Copenhagen. Christian IV was very fond of the palace and often stayed at the castle when he resided in Copenhagen, and it was here that he died in 1648. After his death, the palace passed to his son King Frederik III, who together with his queen, Sophie Amalie, carried out several types of modernisation.
The last king who used the place as a residence was Frederik IV, and around 1720, Rosenborg was abandoned in favor of Frederiksborg Palace.Through the 1700s, considerable art treasures were collected at Rosenborg Castle, among other things items from the estates of deceased royalty and from Christiansborg after the fire there in 1794.
Soon the idea of a museum arose, and that was realised in 1833, which is The Royal Danish Collection’s official year of establishment.