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The year was 1911. In the middle of the Västgöta Plain, wealthy Knut Henrik Littorin built the most impressive building ever seen in the parish. He had made his fortune from oil and gas in Russia.
He was the son of a wealthy man, Sven Henrik Littorin, who in 1856 bought up the agricultural estate Bjertorp. The farm was run rationally and successfully, and the famous Bjertorp stud farm was built here, where Ardennes horses were bred. A few years before his parents passed away, the farm was bought by Knut Henrik, who, however, at this time was in Russia with his family. In the meantime, his brother Sten was appointed as trustee.
Knut Henrik, born in 1860, received his education at the Gothenburg Trade Institute and was employed at the Nobel oil group in Russia where he quickly advanced from office boy to manager and board director of the company. In 1913 he was appointed Norwegian consul in Moscow.
Through investments in Russian oil wells and companies, Knut Henrik created a considerable fortune, which he invested, among other things, at Bjertorp. In memory of his father and mother, he had a magnificent, palatial building erected in the very place where he had grown up as a child. The work went on for three years and everything was completed in 1914. During the Russian Revolution of 1917, Littorin was forced to flee by horse and cart away from the Bolsheviks. Near the Finnish border they are intercepted by the Russians, but then Knut Henrik has already changed clothes and places with the driver, who is executed on the spot with a neck shot.
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The castle is located in exactly the place where the original main building of the family was located. In order to be able to build here, you first had to move the ancestral home 300 m. That house is now on the left when you step out of the gate. Littorin, who was in Moscow during the construction period, hired Ferdinand Boberg, the great architect of the time. Boberg, who is mentioned as the greatest architect of modern times, is the originator of our parliament building Rosenbad, the NK House, Prince Eugens Valdemarsudde.
A castle in the middle of the Vara Plain was considered by Boberg to be a preposterous idea and he turned it down. Only when Littorin made it clear to him that he would be given a free hand and that it had to cost whatever the cost wanted, did he accept the offer. The drawings were presented to the wife, who frowned on her nose as she thought it was too small. Boberg changed the dimensions of the drawing from cubit to meter and, in a stroke of pencil, doubled the size of the building.
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Thus, in 1914, a private residence, for seven people, on 1954 m2 of living space, built with the best materials available and with the help of the most skilled craftsmen in Europe, stands ready in 1914. The castle stands on a foundation of granite, carved out in Bohuslän, where Littorin obviously had its own island. The façades and walls are of limestone, taken from the Falköping tract.
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We open the heavy oak gate that leads into the cloakroom. A cloak room clad in Swedish marble and with space for 200 coats. Not very crowded for seven people. We go up the stairs, past our Russian bear, according to the story felled by Littorin himself, and up into the foyer. This is the heart of the castle, from where we move out into the various lounge lounges on the first floor.
You are now in Sweden's best preserved Art Nouveau environment. All the heavier furniture is original furniture, designed by Ferdinand Boberg, who was not only an architect but also a furniture designer. His spirit rests throughout the castle, virtually every detail strip, window fittings, stucco, luminaires is his work. The foyer is entirely in oak, as well as wall panels and furniture. Look at the railings. Each damper is carved by hand. Likewise, the element protection.
We move on to the dining room. At that time the family's private dining room of nearly seventy square meters. The walls in here are clad in the best quality Honduran mahogany and one, what you call Italian golden leather wallpaper. Look up at the ceiling and you will find absolutely amazing stucco. The most skilled, then and now, at stucco molding were craftsmen from Italy, so of course they brought so-called stucco workers from there who made these on site. The wall-mounted sideboard and dining table, which today stand in the Consul Inn on the second floor, as well as matching chairs, found in the salon Kremlin, were sanded and varnished every six months, whether needed or not.
In the stucco in the corners you will find the inscription KM in a double L, which stands for Knut and Maria Littorin. A further detail of the dining room is the light ramp, which one would think has a later dating. Also note the unique lamp on the ceiling and the other lamps, which in the dining room as well as in the rest of the castle, are largely original fixtures. Then you should know that electricity came to the “Vara Plain” on a wide scale only in the 30s.
On to the consul's study; the room is clad in mahogany panelling with walnut inlays. Open fireplace in black marble with matching marble table (one stands today in the cloakroom). The large desk originally stood down in the corner by the wall-mounted cabinets. Notice the small window sill to the left of the stove. Specially designed “peephole” of the past with a view to the gate. Were the visitor undesirable, Littorin could quickly disappear out the back route.
From the study one enters the room, which is a copy of one of the rooms of the Russian Palace. The vaulted ceiling with gold leaf paintings undeniably brings to mind the Kremlin. The panel here is of masur birch as is the original furniture. So also window sash and element protection. This was the men's smoking room. Here cigars were sipped and cognac was sipped while the ladies were referred to the Yellow Salon, located parallel to the Salon Kremlin.
The Kremlin is the city of the city of Moscow, which is surrounded by a wall. Here were located many of theimperial palaces and churches. After an audience with the last Emperor of Russia in one of these castles, Littorin was so fond of the room he was received in that he had a similar room erected at his home in Sweden.
The most feminine room of all at the castle. Yellow silk wallpapers, woven in France, are recessed in a richly decorated panel-work, painted in white. The furniture designed by Boberg is composed anteroom and conforms to the decor of the panel. They are manufactured at NK Möbelverkstad in Nyköping. On the ceiling hangs a gilded ceiling chandelier with prisms in crystal. Notice the beautiful tableware, which was a wedding gift to Maria and Knut-Henrik at their wedding from a Russian nobleman, dated 1880.
Inside the Yellow Salon is the room where all the major festivities and banquets were held. This hall is clad in a beautiful, green Kolmården marble. Here was originally the wing and the beautiful marble tables, which have now been moved to the Yellow Salon.
