Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
it into a splendid Renaissance castle, raising all the walls to the height of the medieval
towers and plastering them in cream-coloured stucco. When the Danes were no longer
a threat, the town lost its importance, and
Örebro Castle
fell into disuse and
subsequently became a storehouse and a jail. In the old
prison
on the fourth floor, you
can see words scratched into the walls by Russian prisoners of war. Another room was
used to hold suspected witches and was well furnished by King Karl as a
torture
chamber
; at the time, fear of witchcraft was reaching fever pitch, and over four
hundred women lost their heads here having survived attempts to drown them in the
nearby river. Naturally, the castle is said to be riddled with ghosts, ranging from that of
King Magnus Eriksson's wife Blanche (also known as Blanka in Swedish and said to be
in torment for having murdered her son) to Engelbrekt, who had his head lopped off
two years after he stormed the castle in 1434 and led a riot on behalf of farmers
oppressed by harsh taxes.
The fairytale exterior you see today is the result of renovation in the 1890s.
Influenced by contemporary National Romanticism, the architects carefully restored
the castle to reflect both medieval and Renaissance grandeur. The same cannot be
said for the interior, where the valiant guides face a real challenge: there's no original
furniture left, and many of the rooms are used for conferences, hence the emphasis
on the building being a “living castle”. Among the few features of interest are some
fine doors and floors, dating from as recently as the 1920s, the inlays depicting
historical events at Örebro; and, in the main state room, a large
family portrait
of
Karl XI and his family, their eyes all popping out as a result of using arsenic to
whiten their faces.
6
St Nicolai kyrka
Storgatan 27 • Mon-Fri 9am-8pm, Sat 10am-6pm
Just a few hundred metres south of the castle,
St Nicolai kyrka
, at the top of the very
oblong Stortorget, dates from 1260. Extensive restoration in the 1860s robbed it of
most of its medieval character, though recent renovations have tried to undo the
damage. It was here in 1810 that the relatively unknown figure of Jean Baptiste
Bernadotte, Napoleon's marshal, was elected successor to the Swedish throne. The
descendants of the new King Karl Johan, who never spoke a word of Swedish, are the
current royal family. Engelbrekt was also supposed to be buried here after his execution,
but when his coffin was exhumed in the eighteenth century, it was empty, and his
bones have never been recovered.
Konsthall
Arts Centre • Olaigatan 17B • Mon-Thurs noon-6pm, Fri noon-5pm, Sat & Sun noon-4pm • Free
Immediately behind the castle, the
Konsthall
has a surprisingly spacious series of
galleries, located in a former bank, exhibiting temporary collections of
contemporary international art, spread over the ground floor and in the basement in
the old vaults.
OPEN ART
Between mid-June and mid-September, the city's pedestrianized centre is transformed into
a huge open-air contemporary art exhibition,
Open Art
, as designers and artists display
their work. Recent displays have included a gigantic upside-down teddy bear made of
wood and a floating platform for model ducks and seals on the water below the castle; you
name it, anything goes - the aim is to provide an urban forum for thought-provoking
modern art.
