Gävle Castle

Gästrikland · Schweden · Castle

The official Johan Wattrang was summoned to the castle and never seen again – legend says he was walled up alive in one of the cellar vaults and so never found rest.

Gävle Castle was raised at the command of King Johan III in the 1580s and has been the county governor's residence since the 1650s. A fire in 1727 destroyed the upper floors, which were rebuilt by the architect Carl Hårleman. Two figures are said to walk here. One is the harsh and much-disliked official Johan Wattrang, who according to tradition was summoned to the castle and then vanished without trace; the legend has it that he was walled up alive in one of the cellar vaults. That the accounts of him contradict one another – some claim he lies buried in Stockholm, others that he never existed at all – is itself a classic feature of walling-up legends. The other is Countess Wrangel, who appears where the old castle chapel once stood. First her footsteps are heard on the stone floor, then a misty figure steps forward. The cellar vaults and the old castle gaol remain.

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Wo befindet sich Gävle Castle?

Gävle Castle liegt in Gästrikland, Schweden.