The castle-like manor on Storholmen

The residents of Storholmen refer to the manor as slottet. The building, known as Villa Kassman, was developed by banker Gunnar Kassman through a reconstruction of an original stone house built in the early 1910s after he acquired the property in 1917. While Kassman used the villa only as a summer home, his permanent residence remained an apartment on Kungsgatan in Stockholm.

Kassman hired architects Josef Östlihn and Albin Stark to design the reconstruction, which was modeled after 1700s classicist examples into a castle-like manor. The main building had 24 rooms, and the artist Knut Lundström painted all the ceiling and wall decorations. The landscape was shaped by garden director Enoch Cederpalm, who created a palace garden modeled after Solliden on Öland, complete with three different ponds and water features.

History continued to unfold as the island shifted in the 1920s from a private sanctuary to a community of summer houses. The villa served as a pension during the 1930s and was rented out to Ambassador Aleksandra Kollontaj. Following years of neglect and ownership changes, the property was sold in 2021.

Today, the manor stands as a protected cultural monument. It remains a significant landmark on the island, featuring a monumental open fireplace in Kolmård marble and a collection of sculptures and decorations that reflect a bygone era.

Sources: Wikipedia, OpenStreetMap, Wikidata, Wikimedia Commons