FROZEN IN TIME
‹‹ Fifty thousand provenanced objects are entrusted to Enhörning’s care — paintings, including the renowned Vertumnus by Giuseppe Arcimboldo, most likely looted from Prague; furniture, textiles, books; and weapons — from three noble families but notably Wrangel, an inveterate collector. His daughter, who had married into the Brahe noble family, ensured the estate remained intact by creating the Skokloster Castle entail to restrict inheritance to the oldest male heir. “There’s been continuous ownership from 1701 to 1967,” says Enhörning. “Every time the owner family was worried about security they would bring things here and that’s why we have a little bit too much furniture and art,” she jokes. Since Margareta’s time there have been a handful of interventions. Her son had proverbs painted along the first-floor corridor and in the early 1800s Count Magnus Brahe turned a tower room into a memorial for the king. In 1947 the final owner, Rutger von Essen, converted ground floor rooms into his family’s home, the first time the castle was lived in permanently. A periodical from the 1950s shows a von Essen family wedding in the splendour of the King’s Hall. Since the von Essens sold the castle and its contents to the state, it has undergone a sweeping conservation program using only traditional materials and techniques. When the roof was repaired recently, trusses were rebuilt based on drawings from 1649. After five years in her job, Enhörning — a trained textile conservator — is endlessly captivated by her charge. She works in a room where part of the vaulted ceiling is painted bright blue with 1654 carved in the plaster, but she’s given the castle a contemporary life with lively exhibitions and events. Enhörning’s favourite spots range from the grand King’s Hall to a modest Empire-style Summer Bedroom last inhabited by one of the von Essens, where she’ll sometimes enjoy a late coffee in the sun. “I love the way the light hits the rooms in a certain way and then another,” she says. You might even say it’s majestic.