Wik Castle (Wiks slott) sits beautifully on the lakefront just 20 minutes south-west of Sweden’s premier, and of course also oldest, university city Uppsala. The castle is Mid-Sweden’s best preserved late Medieval castle and is still used extensively.

While not entirely clear when Wik was actually built we know that the original farmland was owned by Lawman Israel Andreasson (And) who died 1289. We also know, through written sources, that it in 1303 served as a seat for Ramborg Israelsdotter and in 1315 for her husband Arvid Gustavsson of the Sparre av Vik family. Through inheritance it ended up under the noble Bielke family around 1380 who built the first castle. A hundred years later, from 1470, Dane Nils Klausson resided at the Wik and later his son, Knut Nilsson, from 1505. According to the chronicles of Peder Swart, Gustav I (Vasa) besieged ”a small house by the name of Vik” for an entire year in 1521.

In 1638, Wik was inherited by 18 year old Sigrid Bielke and her husband, Councillor of the Realm Governor-General of Livland, Gustaf Horn af Björneborg. Through marriage it came under the possession of the von Essen family who owned it for 124 years until it, for the first time, was sold in 1912. Since Ramborg Israelsdotter in 1303, the estate had then been inherited through 24 generations and for an impressive 600 years!

The new owner was banker Alfred Berg who paid 125.000 SEK for the estate. Since 1923, the estate has been under the care of the Uppsala County Administration who primarily uses it as a conference facility.

Photo: ArildV, Wikimedia