Varnhem Abbey Church and the De la Gardie burial chapel

Skara, Västergötland · Sweden · Church

Varnhem Abbey Church and the De la Gardie burial chapel — Skara, Västergötland · Sweden · Church

Varnhem Abbey Church holds the tomb of Magnus Gabriel De la Gardie, linked to M.R. James's 1904 ghost story Count Magnus.

Inside Varnhem Abbey Church, in Skara Municipality in the Swedish province of Västergötland, lies Magnus Gabriel De la Gardie. He served as Lord High Chancellor in seventeenth-century Sweden and was a patron of art and scholarship. His tomb is housed in the De la Gardie burial chapel, a place with an unexpected connection to an English ghost story.

In 1901, the British writer M.R. James visited Varnhem. A few years later, he published Count Magnus, a story about a Swedish nobleman whose coffin would have been better left undisturbed.

From abbey to burial church

Varnhem Abbey Church originally belonged to a monastery. In the seventeenth century, the church became closely associated with the De la Gardie family, particularly Magnus Gabriel De la Gardie, who had it renovated as his future burial church.

The work took place between 1654 and 1674, although the project was not fully completed until the early eighteenth century. The De la Gardie burial chapel was also finished during this later period. Magnus Gabriel had died in 1686 and was buried in the church he had renovated.

The real Count Magnus

Born in 1622, Magnus Gabriel De la Gardie was a favourite of Queen Christina of Sweden. He is described as handsome and learned, and as a patron of art and scholarship. Among his notable achievements was purchasing the Codex Argenteus, also known as the Silver Bible, and donating it to Uppsala University.

The count in M.R. James's story is rather different. James describes Magnus De la Gardie as a cruel landowner who suppressed a peasant uprising through executions and severe punishments. He is also said to have undertaken a mysterious black pilgrimage and returned with something.

Scholar Rosemary Pardoe has suggested that James may have borrowed some details from Magnus Gabriel's father, Jacob De la Gardie. These include a portrait and a manor house resembling those described in the story. Pardoe presents this as a hypothesis rather than an established fact.

Three padlocks on a coffin

In Count Magnus, an English travel writer named Mr Wraxall visits Sweden during the summer of 1863. His research takes him to a manor in Västergötland, which James calls Råbäck while explicitly explaining that this is not its actual name.

Near the local church stands a mausoleum containing the count's remains. Wraxall quietly wonders aloud whether Count Magnus is awake. During subsequent visits, he discovers that the three padlocks securing the sarcophagus have opened, one after another.

Later, travelling home by canal boat through Trollhättan, Wraxall begins counting his fellow passengers. Each time, his count includes two people too many.

M.R. James in Varnhem, 1901

James visited Varnhem in 1901, three years before Count Magnus appeared in his collection Ghost Stories of an Antiquary in 1904. According to annotations discussed by Rosemary Pardoe, he also wrote a letter to his parents from Råbäck on Kinnekulle on 10 August that year.

The connection to Varnhem is therefore quite specific, although the historical Magnus Gabriel cannot be treated as a direct model for the fictional count's character. James knew the area, had visited Varnhem and used the name of a nobleman who really was buried here.

Varnhem holds the historical count's grave. The other Count Magnus, whose coffin was secured with three padlocks, belongs to James's fiction.

Other sources about this place

FAQ

Where is Varnhem Abbey Church and the De la Gardie burial chapel located?

Varnhem Abbey Church and the De la Gardie burial chapel is in Skara, Västergötland, Sweden.

More haunted places in Västergötland

Accounts are drawn from local folklore and visitor reports.

Image: An-d · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Wikimedia Commons