About this business
Sundbyholm Castle stands on a headland reaching into Lake Mälaren, twelve kilometres northeast of Eskilstuna in Södermanland, its profile rising above a long castle park that descends to the water’s edge. The site’s history extends to the medieval period, when it was held as a monastery property by the Eskilstuna Johanniterkloster. Following the Reformation in 1527, it passed to the Swedish Crown and became a royal estate, beginning a long association with the highest levels of Swedish power. In 1627, the estate was granted by donation to Admiral Carl Carlsson Gyllenhielm, an illegitimate son of King Karl IX, who not only had the main castle building constructed between 1639 and 1648 but also founded what is described as Sweden’s first elementary school on the grounds — an institution that continued to educate children on the estate until 1987.
The castle’s architectural history continued through subsequent owners. In the 1670s, Seved Bååt added three floors to the structure, shaping the silhouette that the building retains to this day. A fire on Christmas Eve 1774 damaged part of the castle, and in 1819 Baron Salomon Löfvensköld added the elegant yellow manor house beside the castle that now serves as the heart of the hotel operation. By the late nineteenth century, Sundbyholm had captured the imagination of artists: Prince Eugen, the prince-painter who was one of the most significant Swedish artists of his generation, came to the estate in the 1890s and painted his celebrated work “The Old Castle” here, cementing the property’s place in Swedish cultural memory.
The City of Eskilstuna acquired Sundbyholm in 1939, and restoration work began in 1952. Since 1987, the castle has operated as a hotel and conference centre, welcoming guests into a complex of historic buildings surrounded by the park, the lake, and the characteristic Södermanland landscape. The hotel offers 109 rooms and a restaurant serving food from the castle kitchen, with pastries from its own patisserie. The guest harbour below the castle park accepts visiting boats, and the lake provides the opportunity for canoeing and other waterside activities throughout the warmer months.
Weddings at Sundbyholm take place within one of the most historically layered settings in central Sweden. The combination of the medieval monastic site, the castle built by an admiral of royal birth, the schoolhouse legacy, and the artistic connections of Prince Eugen gives the occasion an almost narrative quality, as though the ceremony takes place within a story that has been unfolding for centuries. The castle park between the buildings and the lake provides a natural setting for ceremony and photographs, and the event spaces within the yellow manor house offer interiors of genuine period character.
For couples who want their wedding to be held in a place of real Swedish historical depth, Sundbyholm Castle offers layers of meaning and beauty that few properties can match. The connection to the medieval church, the Swedish Crown, royal patronage, and national artistic heritage gives every celebration a sense of participation in something much larger than a single day. With Lake Mälaren below, the castle park above, and the traditions of the gästgifveri alive in the kitchen, Sundbyholm receives wedding parties as it has received guests for centuries — with the particular generosity of a great Swedish estate.