Stora Sundby Castle

Stora Sundby, Sweden, Sweden

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Stora Sundby Castle, situated on the northern shore of Lake Hjälmaren in Stora Sundby near Eskilstuna, Sweden, traces its origins to a 13th-century defensive tower and ramparts amid medieval power struggles, with the first proper castle built in the mid-16th century by Lars Siggeson Sparre.

Long held by the influential Sparre family for over three centuries, it was transformed in the 1840s by Count Carl de Geer and his wife Ulrika Sofia Sprengtporten into its iconic fairy-tale form inspired by Walter Scott's Abbotsford, featuring four large towers for the seasons, twelve smaller ones for the months, 52 rooms for the weeks, and 365 windows for the days in architect Peter Frederick Robinson's Neo-Gothic design.

Privately owned today by the Kvanum family, the preserved Renaissance core clad in romantic stone hosts guided tours, a café, wildlife conservation, and filming for series like Young Royals amid lush parklands and a deer enclosure.