Axel Petersson Brahe, til Vidsköfle

VITTSKÖVLE CASTLE, which is situated about 12 miles south of Kristianstad, is one of the best preserved Renaissance-castles in the Nordic countries. The castle has had medieval precursors, but the present castle was built by Jens Brahe in 1553. It´s the largest castle in Skåne with approx. 100 rooms. Location and shape were decided out of consideration for defence and the tiled four-winged castle was built on piles in the marsh and supplied with strong square towers surrounded by moats. From the towers it was possible to sweep every wall with the fire from the cannons and on the top floor of the castle one can still see traces of the shooting corridor that before used to run along the foot of the roof. The spire of the south-east tower is of ancient origin, while the pinnacles of the north-west tower are a romanticizing detail, which came about at the end of the 18th century after a fire at the upper part of the tower.

The medieval main estate was situated just north of Vittskövle Church, not far from the present castle, and was demolished when the new castle was erected.

The church was built during the first half of the 13th century and is one of the most interesting parish churches in Skåne. It has famous medieval paintings and tombstones for the oldest owners of Vittskövle.

The first known owners of the estate are two brothers named Harald and Holger Egeside, who are supposed to have lived some time during the 13th century. In the year 1355 the esquire Greger Pedersen of the powerful Krognos family is mentioned as the owner. His son Holger Gregersen wrote himself "lord of Vittskövle". By pawning and marriage to one of this mans daughters Axel Pedersen Brahe in 1401 became the new owner of Vittskövle. By his death in 1425 the inheritance was split between the son Peder Axelsen and four daughters. Thereafter followed a time of complicated ownerships, and it took more than 100 years until Vittskövle once again was in the hands of the Brahe family. At the end of the medieval period some part of the estate was pawned to the archbishop in Lund and was under jurisdiction of the bailiff on Åhus Castle, and in connection with the Reformation this part in 1536 was withdrawn to the Crown.

The castle from the south

Finally Lave Brahe, son of Axel Brahe at Krageholm, managed to buy all the other owners of the estate out and transferred it to his younger brother Jens, while he himself went to live at Krageholm Castle. Jens Brahe, married to Anne Bille, got in 1555 ratification on the right to entire Vittskövle, but began as early as 1553 to raise the present castle. He put an inscription over the castle doorway, which is still there. It has the Brahe and Bille families coats of arms and expresses a wish that the property forever will remain in the ownership of the Brahe family. This wish, though, was not to be fulfilled. Jens Brahe was on his death in 1560 replaced by his son Henrik, married to Lene Thott. He was Man of Command on Bornholm and Danish counsel of the realm and also a very wealthy man, who owned a.o. Löberöd, Vidarp and Ousbyholm in Skåne and several estates in the rest of Denmark. In 1577 Henrik Brahe completed the building of the castle. He had by his death in 1587 only one daughter, Margareta, still in life.

Henrik Brahe

She married Christian Barnekow, whos family descended from Pommern and had ancestors from the 13th century, and by that the estate went over to the Barnekow family, who owned Vittskövle right up to 1826. Barnekow was one of Denmark's most brilliant noblemen and had got himself a solid education at several of the finest and most famuos universities in Europe. He spent a lot of time travelling in foreign countries and visited a.o. Egypt and Palestine. After his return to Denmark he held an important post at the court of Christian IV and the king employed him for several important diplomatic commissions. As a mark of gratitude he received Lundagård and the monastery of St. Peter in Lund as enfeoffments by the king and later he also received the county of Malmöhus. Eventually though, he had to give his life for his king. During an encounter between Danish troups and the Swedish soldiers of Duke Johan of Östergötland at Varberg in 1612 the Danish army was taken by surprise by the Swedes. King Christian happened to get stuck in the marsh with his horse. When the horse made a jump from it, it got speared on a stake. Barnekow then handed over his horse to the king with the words: "For Your Majesty my horse, for the enemy my life, for God my soul". The king escaped, but Christian Barnekow was slashed down by the Swedes.

Christian Barnekow

His wife Birgitte Skeel

Vittskövle went over to the son Hans, who died in 1630, and later to his son Christian. His first wife Else Ramel died in childbirth and he remarried Birgitte Skeel, who seems to have been a powerful woman. When she one evening was on her way in her carriage from Copenhagen to her family estate in Köge, she had stopped for a while at a tavern that happened to be a haunt of robbers. These men got her coachman drunk and one of the robbers dressed in his clothes and sat down on the coachmans box. Birgitte didn´t suspect mischief until the carriage turned off the road and headed towards the woods. She didn´t have any weapon, but she kept her sense and managed to strangle the man from behind with her garter and then drove off by herself to Köge. She is painted in Vittskövle church, where you can see her, gentle and smiling, with husband and children. Originally she was holding a garter in her hand, but it was later repainted to a more discreet prayer-book. After Skåne was ceded to Sweden in 1658, Christian Barnekow was taken advantage of for propaganda purposes by the Swedes. He was chosen for vicepresident of Göta Court of Appeal and in 1664 the family was introduced to the Swedish House of the Nobility all thanks to him.

The castle about 1680

His son Kjell Christoffer Barnekow inherited in 1666 as a three-year-old boy the estate along with Rosendal and Örtofta. In 1691 he got married to Margareta von Ascheberg, the daughter of field marshal and Governor General of Skåne, Rutger von Ascheberg, and his young spouse then followed him on all his campaigns on the service of Holland in the war against the French. It is told that their youngest son was born in the middle of the bombardment of Brussels in 1695. In the 1690's colonel Barnekow along with his father in law Ascheberg established the largest and oldest studfarm in the country in order to breed horses for a regiment of dragoons at Vittskövle. Kjell Christoffer Barnekow died in 1700 of a severe fever, only 37 years old.

Margareta von Ascheberg His young wife Margareta von Ascheberg then ruled at Vittskövle for 53 whole years. Her late husband had undertaken to train and arm 200 dragoons. She wrote a persuasive letter to king Karl XII and asked for release from this, "while I defenceless widow no longer is capable of it". In her late husband's contract with the Crown it was also written, that if anything mortally came upon the colonel, then his enlistment should "not redound his children and heirs any harm". The king, who was in need for new recruits for his army in the provinces at the Baltic, rejected her request and explained that she had to fulfill the contract. She enlisted vagrants and unemployed farm-hands, manufactured the uniforms at the castle, and in 1702 her mounted dragoondepartment was shipped over to Livland with horses raised at Vittskövle. But none of "the countess dragoons" came back to Sweden. All of them died or were taken into captivity and brought to Siberia. "The Aschebergian at Vittskövle", the name she was known under

in all Skåne, also increased her landed property by bying the large estates of Ellinge, Sövdeborg and Tosterup. In those parishes, where the estates were situated, the energetic countess established schools and hospitals and she answered for both social service and spiritual care of thousands of her dependants. When she died at the age of 82, she was buried in the Barnekow crypt in Vittskövle church at her husband's side. She was the last one to carry the name of Ascheberg.

General Christian Barnekow

The estate was inherited by her son Christian Barnekow, who was lieutenant general and governor of Kristianstad county and was promoted to baronial Estate. By his death in 1672 Vittskövle was transferred to the son and royal forester Kjell Christoffer Barnekow, who in 1818 was suceeded by his son the First Chamberlain Lord Christian Barnekow. In 1826 he had to dispose of the estate for economic reasons and by that the Barnekow possession of Vittskövle had come to an end.

Vittskövle was bought by the banker Jonas Hagerman, whose father Jacob Hagerman had been head of stables at the estate. Ten years later he sold Vittskövle to his brother Gustaf, who was a wealthy merchant in Ystad. His daughter Maria married Rudolf Hodder Stjernswärd, marshal of The Court, and since 1837 the estate has been in the ownership of the Stjernswärd family. In 1915 the family company AB Widtskofle was founded. The acreage of the estate is approx. 5.600 acres and the present owner is Carl-Georg Stjernswärd.

By the castle there is a beautiful garden, created by the family architect Adolf Fredrik Barnekow in the later half of the 18th century, and an "English" park which dates from approx. 1840. The park is open to the public. The farm-buildings date from the middle of the 19th century and are built in medieval style after the drawnings of professor Carl Georg Brunius, who was a cathedral architect in Lund and a great admirer of the Middle Ages. Long alleys lead from different directions towards the castle.

Källa: http://www.algonet.se/~sylve_a/e_vittsk.htm