Details
Founded: 1925Category: Palaces, manors and town halls in Sweden
Historical period: Modern and Nonaligned State (Sweden)
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Övralid was home to poet, writer, and Nobel Prize laureate Verner von Heidenstam. Övralid was built in 1925 on the east hillside of lake Vättern. Originally it had no electricity. Övralid houses a library, a study, a dining hall, two bed rooms, and three guest rooms. In the kitchen stands one of Sweden's oldest still running refrigerators from the 1930s. The interior has been kept the way it was when Heidenstam died in 1940. No one has lived in Övralid after Heidenstam. The building is open for visitors in the summer and the personal belongings of Heidenstam can be seen where he left them in 1940. Heidenstam is buried nearby.
References:The Beckov castle stands on a steep 50 m tall rock in the village Beckov. The dominance of the rock and impression of invincibility it gaves, challenged our ancestors to make use of these assets. The result is a remarkable harmony between the natural setting and architecture.
The castle first mentioned in 1200 was originally owned by the King and later, at the end of the 13th century it fell in hands of Matúš Èák. Its owners alternated - at the end of the 14th century the family of Stibor of Stiborice bought it.
The next owners, the Bánffys who adapted the Gothic castle to the Renaissance residence, improved its fortifications preventing the Turks from conquering it at the end of the 16th century. When Bánffys died out, the castle was owned by several noble families. It fell in decay after fire in 1729.
The history of the castle is the subject of different legends.