Bjärka-Säby gamla slott: A stone manor in Östergötland

Bjärka-Säby gamla slott lies in Bjärka-Säby, Vists socken, Hanekinds härad in Östergötland. It is located 2 miles southeast of Linköping and 4 kilometres north of Bestorp in Linköpings stift. The main building of the castle, built in stone in the 1630s, stands alongside two wing buildings constructed in wood in the early 1700s. The main building has three floors, including a furnished attic, and is covered with a gable roof. The wing buildings have only one floor and are provided with hip roofs.

The southeastern wing building was furnished as a residence and is still used today. The old stone house was used as a guest house in the years following the 1700s. Later, the residential wing received an expensive decoration with painted ceilings and was furnished with Germund Cederhielm's collection of art and crafts. During the last half of the 1700s, the ceiling paintings in the southern wing were hidden behind paper and plaster.

In the 1300s, the farm Bjärka was owned by Johan Pettersson, who rebuilt the royal farm in Vadstena into a monastery. In 1367, Bo Jonsson Grip acquired Bjärka. He immediately began building a fortress called Bjärkaholm on an island in Stångån. By 1370, it was possible to move in. The following year, Bo Jonsson also bought the neighboring farm Säby, which was merged with Bjärka. In 1386, Bo Jonsson died, and the farms in Vists socken passed to his daughter, Margareta Bülow. Bjärka and Säby were then inherited by the Natt och Dag family, who owned them for six generations.

Around the middle of the 1500s, Säby became a manor house and new buildings were erected, likely in wood and not particularly expensive. Around 1630, Per Nilsson Natt och Dag began a more stately stone manor house. The main portal bears the year 1632, which likely means the facades were finished then. The portal is also adorned with the coats of arms of the builder and his wife, Sofia Stenbock. When Per Nilsson died two years later, his widow completed the construction.

By the end of the 1600s, Karl XI faced problems with the kingdom's finances and made several reductions of the assets of the nobility. This contributed to Carl Persson (Natt och Dag) facing economic difficulties, forcing him to hand over the estate to Germund Cederhielm. Germund Cederhielm immediately began a modernization of the manor. Two new wooden wings with hip roofs were built on the front; in the southeastern wing, he furnished a residence for himself, and in the northwestern wing, he placed a kitchen and other economic rooms. Under Germund Cederhielm’s grandson, Germund Carl Cederhielm, the residential wing was modernized in Gustavian style, but he made no other major changes.

According to Carl Fredric Broocman’s visit in the middle of the 1700s, Säby featured 60 tons of seed, 800 loads of hay, ample grazing, significant forest, good fishing, a beautiful garden with an orangery, a good berry garden, a deer park with some elk, a milk mill with 2 pairs of stones, a steel mill powered by water, a saw mill, and a shear mill.

Sources: Wikipedia, OpenStreetMap, Wikidata, Wikimedia Commons