Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
It might be short on wow factor, but cheery Lidköping - set on Vänern lake - is deeply
likeable. Its handsome main square, Nya Stadens Torg, is dominated by the curious, squat
old courthouse and its tower (it's actually a replica - the original burnt down in 1960). A
previous fire in 1849 destroyed most of the town, but the cute 17th-century houses around
Limtorget still stand.
Lidköping's finest attractions lie some distance out of town.
Sights & Activities
Läckö Slott
CASTLE
( 0510-103 20;
www.lackoslott.se
;
adult/under 26yr Skr80/free; 10am-6pm daily mid-Jun-Aug)
An extraordinary example of 17th-century Swedish baroque architecture, with cupolas,
towers and ornate plasterwork, Läckö Slott lies 23km north of Lidköping. The first castle
on the site was constructed in 1298, but it was improved enormously by Count Magnus
Gabriel de la Gardie after he acquired it in 1615.
Admission includes 40-minute guided tours. From mid-June to mid-August, bus 132
runs three times daily from Lidköping to the castle (Skr32, 50 minutes).
The lakeside castle has 240 rooms, with the most impressive being the King's Hall, with
13 angels hanging from the ceiling and nine epic paintings depicting the Thirty Years War.
Most rooms are largely unadorned, with the exception of their spectacularly painted ceil-
ings.
Tours run on the hour and give you access to the most interesting rooms, including the
representative apartments, the count's private chambers, the Banquet Hall where guests sat
down for their 55-course meals and the chamber with the German double-headed eagle,
perhaps intended as mockery of the enemy. From mid-June to August there are English-
language tours at 11.30am, 1.30pm and 3.30pm daily. Otherwise you're free to bumble
about in the kitchen, dungeon, armour chamber, chapel and the terraced castle gardens that
overlook the lake. The lower floors contain shops and the atmospheric castle restaurant,
Fataburen, which uses vegetables and herbs from the castle garden.
Classical-music and opera events are held in the courtyard several times in July and
August; enquire at Lidköping tourist office.
Vänermuseet
MUSEUM
