Gripsholm

Gripsholm Castle
Water view of the castle
General information
Architectural style	Renaissance
Town or city	Mariefred
Country	Sweden
Construction started	1537
Completed	1709
Design and construction
Architect	Henrik von Cöllen

Gripsholm Castle (Swedish: Gripsholms slott) is a castle in Mariefred, Södermanland, Sweden. It is located by lake Mälaren in south central Sweden, in the municipality of Strängnäs, about 60 km west of . Since Gustav Vasa, Gripsholm has belonged to the Swedish Royal Family and was used as one of their residences until the 18th-century. It is now a museum, but it is still considered to be a palace at the disposal of the King and as such it is part of the Crown palaces in Sweden.

A fortress was built at the location in the 1370s by Bo Jonsson Grip. It was sold to queen Margaret in 1404, and remained the property of the crown until it was acquired by Sten Sture the Elder in 1472. It was donated to a convent for males of the order of the Carthusians in 1498, and functioned as a convent for almost thirty years. In 1526, the Carthusian Abbey was confiscated by King Gustav I during the Swedish Reformation. The King tore it down, and built a fortified castle with circular corner towers and a wall, for defensive purposes. Of the original medieval fortress, only the façade of a wall remains.

King Gustav had it constructed to serve as one of the main residences of the royal house. The castle was constructed between 1537 and 1545, and often served as the residence of the royal court: during the Dacke War, for example, the royal children were housed there. Between 1563 and 1567, King Eric XIV imprisoned his brother John and his consort Catherine Jagiellon in the castle. John's son Sigismund, later the King of Poland and Sweden, was born in the castle on June 20, 1566. When Eric XIV was deposed by John, Gripsholm Castle came to serve as one of the castles were John had Eric imprisoned. The deposed king Eric was kept prisoner here from 1571 until 1573.