The Construction

Borgholm Castle is one of the most well known structures in Sweden and reflects nearly one thousand years of different architectural styles and construction methods. To an outsider, Borgholm Castle appears mainly as an enormous structure built in stone, while the expert can read out a lot of interesting procedures.

The first thing to be built was a round, fortified main tower within a strong curtain wall. That was in the 12th century. In the Middle Ages the castle was enlarged by several stages. 1572 to 1592 King Johan III had the castle totally converted, under the management of the architect brothers Johan Baptista and Domenicus Pahr, into a magnificent Renaissance palace. During the Kalmar War (1611-1613) the building was very severely damaged, and when King Charles X Gustaf was to start the repair work, he appointed Nicodemus Tessin the Elder to rebuild the castle into a Baroque palace. It was begun in 1652 but towards the end of the 17th century the work gradually came to a standstill and was finally closed down during the campaign Charles XII fought in Russia in 1709. At that time there were no roofs on both the eastern and the southern wing and many other parts were far from finished. Thereafter the castle was left to decay until 1806 when it was definitely devastated by a widespread fire. In the 1880s, work was begun to preserve and partially restore the Castle of Borgholm.

Wind and weather as well as plants are the greatest exterior factors of influence on the building. The plants help to bind moisture, and provide humus when they rot, which in turn binds even more moisture.
The damp then penetrates into the masonry, which crumbles away. When it gets cold, the water causes frost erosions, too, with loose stones as a consequence.

Of vital importance now is to continue the preservation of those parts of the building that were most roughly treated by the ravages of time. Serious mistakes have been made during the 20th century by using cement mortar and plaster. Today, exactly as in olden times, lime mortar is used, which is produced in a lime-burner that was built recently south of Borgholm Castle. The restoration work is extensive and time consuming. First the cement mortar must be removed and those parts of the masonry that had crumbled away. These have to be replaced by new and old stones joined together with new lime-mortar. More and more consideration is also taken to adapt the building to the public activities that are carried on today.