The Palace

Like most wealthy families at the time Axel and Marguerite had separate bedrooms. Margurite’s was warmly decorated in different shades of pink. Axel’s on the other hand was very austere and cold. He called himself The Last Viking and preferred a manly clean and raw look. His private bathroom outside the room is decorated just like that with stonewalls with reliefs, carved wooden panels and a great glass relief depicting a Viking battle.

 

Rumor has it he in particular enjoyed having a private stair leading directly to the maid’s room.

Sweden was a great power between 1611 and 1718. In 1700 the Nordic War started, it lasted for 21 years and lead to the end of the great power era. During this time the Russians roamed the Swedish east coast and pillaged and destroyed everything that came in their way. Some of the art and artefacts were saved from the Russians as they were taken down and buried or hidden further inland. This was the case with this ceiling, it was taken down from Årsta Church and was hidden for over 200 years until the day when Axel Wenner-Gren bought it on auction and installed it here.

This room got its name from the blue pattern on the tile oven. It is not a genuine Marieberg tile oven; but a quite poorly made copy from the 16th century.

 

This is the room where the maids lived. All the staff who worked for the Wenner-Gren’s had a very beneficial contract; they had full wages, food and lodging all year even though the Wenner-Gren’s only stayed at the palace during the summer months.

Field Marshal Count Gustav Horn built this palace in 1657. He was a warlord in King Gustav II Adolf’s army. Horn received this property in 1628 as a token of the king’s appreciation for his efforts in the war. It was then a wooden palace in very bad shape. The stone palace that replaced the old one was finished in 1657, the same years as Horn died. 

 

The sword is believed to be the one Viking Sote used in his battle with Olav Haraldsson in 1006. The two canons by the entrance are Russian from the end of the 15th century. The floor, the star vaults and the vaults in the stairs are original.

 

Most of the hunting trophies are from the Wenner-Gren era, but Olle Hartwig shot the only golden deer ever spotted on the peninsula.

This dungeon was used to punish crooks and thieves who were caught red-handed. They were temporarily chained to the walls of the dungeon, until they were transported to a proper prison. Back in the day, that could take a looong time.

 

Due to its location right next to the wine cellar, the dungeon was also a good spot to put roisterers for the night. These days, they get to sober up in a hotel room instead.

 

In this room there are two ghosts. They used to be awfully noisy and cause trouble for both our guest and our staff. In order to solve this issue we consulted a medium. She said that if we put up a portrait of someone we respected, a mirror on the wall and a crystal ball in the window that would appease the ghosts and calm them down. So ever since Marguerite has been watching over them they have been behaving perfectly.

The ceiling is covered with leaf gold and a painting by the artist couple Lodén. Axel commissioned this ceiling painting for Marguerite as a reminder of their wedding trip in 1930, a safari in India.

 

The faucets used to be real gold too but Marguerite’s trustee, Birger Strid, sold them after Axel’s death. Birger Strid was later sentenced to eight years in prison for embezzlement as he had emptied the palace of all its furniture, art and valuables. Long time after he returned to the palace with a bust of Axel that he wanted to return to its real home.

 

Torsten Kreuger built the swimming pool in the 1930’s according to the Olympic standards, 25 x 50 m, of those times. It was the first outdoor swimming pool in Sweden. From this bathroom window he put a slide straight in to the pool. Marguerite unfortunately did not find the slide appropriate for a palace and had it removed.

Marguerite owned a fortune in jewellery, and the staff that worked for her testifies that they would always hear her come because of the rattle and jingle jangle from her jewellery. At night it was always locked away in the hidden safe next to the window.

 

The room is decorated with a hand painted border by her good friends Dagmar and Olle Lodén. It depicts the history of fashion worn by icons from each era, from Cleopatra to Josephine Baker. Napoleon and his wife Josephine, Elisabeth I, Gustav V, Marlene Dietrich, Karl Gerhard, Hjalmar Branting, Bertil Malmberg, Greta Garbo, Zarah Leander, Paul von Hinderburg, Charles Lindbergh, Harriet Bosse, August Strindberg, mrs Wenner-Gren herself and a lot of other celebrities are depicted on the board. How many faces do you recognize?

Marguerite was very superstitious and she always slept with 40 pairs of slippers arranged around her bed. If the were still in order when she woke up it meant that no ghosts or spirits had visited her during the night.

This room is named after the 16th century tile oven from Marieberg. The motive on the oven is called Nordstiernan, Northern Star. Tile ovens from Marieberg were different from other ordinary tile ovens from the 1600th century as they were painted in bright colors on white tiles and had a very shiny glaze. Count Liljencrantz who built Sturehof palace owned the Marieberg porcelain factory and he order the tile ovens for his new home. 20 of the 30 original ovens that are preserved are still at Sturehof and one is in this room.

 

This room is also adorned with the Scotish gothic panel that the Wenner-Gren smuggled into Sweden on their luxury yacht, The Southern Cross. This is the room where Marguerite Wenner-Gren served her guest’s cocktails before dinner. Her signature cocktail was the Southern Cross with grape fruit juice and gin, and it was the only cocktail that she ever served before dinner at the Palace. The bottles were stored in the hidden storage behind the wooden panel on each side of the door. On the board of the panel Marguerite’s collection of mortar was displayed.

 

The largest hall in the palace is named Stensalen, the Stone Parlour. It has got its name from the beautiful lime stone floor from the Swedish island Öland. When the palace was built they put the stone on a layer of sand to make it smooth and even, but after 350 years the sand is not so even any more... Redoing the floor is out of the question though as the sand and stone weighs over 2000 kg, shifting all this weight could potentially destabilize the entire palace.

 

The portrait of Lord Oliver Cromwell above the fireplace has an interesting story. It was sold by the trustee Birger Strid following the death of Axel Wenner-Gren and thought to be gone forever. The Hartwig family, who lived in the palace in the 70’s, were dedicated to finding and retrieving as many of the lost antiques as they could. One evening the Hartwig family was watching The Persuaders, with roger Moore and Tony Curtis, on TV and saw the portrait in one of the scenes. They immediately called the BBC who sold it back to Häringe Palace.

 

By the windows is a painting of Gustav Horn who built this palace in 1657. Next to Horn is King Gustav II Adolf, the woman is unknown. The scene is probably taking place in Germany since it was only there the two gentlemen ever met. There is an historical error in the painting that reveals that it is not from the 15th century; kings did not wear the blue ribbon until the age of King Gustav III, i.e. by the end of the 16th century.

 

Above the doors are motives painted by Flemish artists in the 16th century.

The magnificent dining hall cabinet is designed by architect Ragnar Östberg; the man who designed Stockholm City hall. Torsten Kreuger placed the order and six German carpenters built it in this room in 1929, and while they were here they also painted the ceiling beams with gold. On the doors previous owners are portrayed: Gustav Vasa, Viking Sote, Gustav Horn and Kreuger himself among others. The grid is decorated with animals that were found on the property, though we doubt there have ever been any bears on the peninsula. The cabinet was used for displaying precious Meissen and Dresden china.

 

On one of the sides you will find Sweden’s first refrigerator where Kreuger stored night snacks and beer. The cabinet weighs over 1000 kg and cannot be taken out of the room. It was the only piece of furniture left in the palace when Olle Hartwig bought the palace on an executive auction in 1974 for 1.7 million SEK.

 

Palaces and good wines have a long and inseparable history, and thepeople who live in palaces are  known to dutifully enjoy the good wines on hand. Even if Axel Wenner-Gren himself wasn’t much of a drinker (unlike his wife, Axel preferred mineral water), he always offered an abundance of cocktails and wine at all of the Wenner-Gren homes.

 

An impressive collection of wine was included in the deal when the Wenner-Grens took over Häringe Palace from Torsten Kreuger (who was imprisoned and forced to accept a veritably disgraceful bid). The wine cellar here was informally called “Gyllene Freden,” due to the fact that the total value of all the wines in here at the time would have been enough to purchase the distinguished restaurant located in the Old Town of Stockholm.

 

Torsten Kreuger later stated that he could forgive his friends the Wenner-Grens for buying Häringe – including all furnishings – for a paltry sum, but he could never forget that Axel and Marguerite gave Torsten’s old parents only six days to move out. You could say that eventually the tides were turned when Birger Strid – the trustee who emptied the palace of everything of value after Axel Wenner-Gren’s death – didn’t stop at selling the remaining wares, but even sold off the wine cellar shelves.

The Upper Gothic room is decorated with a 1500th century gothic solid oak panel. It comes from the monastery in the royal palace Linlithgow in Scotland, the palace where Mary, Queen of Scots was born in 1542. In the panel there are several hidden doors. The Gargoyles in the ceiling are supposed to protect you from evil. The relief faces on the panel belongs to the monks in the monastery. One of them came with the panel and now resides at Häringe Palace. He sits in the chair in the corner to the left of the entrance. He is one of our friendliest ghosts but he can sometimes get a little grumpy if you stumble over his feet or sit on him.

 

One thing that makes Häringe Palace unique is that we know the names of all the previous owners all the way back to Viking Sote who lived here in the 900th century. There is even a love story from the 400’s that takes place at the Häringe peninsula that the Icelandic poet Orvar Odd wrote about.

 

Torsten Kreuger had this tapestry made. It is a map of the property with all the names and coat of arms of the previous owners. Kreuger was not part of the nobility and his family did not have a coat of arms so he simply created one. As he was an engineer and a constructor he chose a compass and some bricks as his symbols, there are also some freemason symbols in it.