Skokloster Castle

Carl Gustaf Wrangel built Skokloster from 1654 with the proceeds of the continental wars and filled it with what he acquired in them - arms, books, paintings, curiosities - and when he died in 1676 the work stopped. The great banqueting hall on the top floor has stayed as it was that day: unplastered, with the craftsmen's tools and blocks of stone still lying about, which is unusual enough to be the reason many people come. The rest of the castle is furnished and largely untouched since the seventeenth century, because the estate stayed in one family and nothing was modernised. The armoury and library are among the largest private collections of their date anywhere.

What you actually see

• The unfinished banqueting hall - tools and stone left from 1676.
• Seventeenth-century rooms untouched - the estate never modernised.
• An armoury from the continental wars - much of it taken as spoil.
• A library of the same date - kept intact.

When to go

May to September, when the interiors are open. Two to three hours.

Honest expectations

The season is short and interiors are by guided tour. There is no heating, so it is cold even in summer. Public transport is poor - a car helps. Photography is restricted in places.

Nearby

Sigtuna is east across the lake; Uppsala is north.