Carl Gustaf Tessin

In the region of Bettna there are Manor houses abound, the most famous being Åkerö, beautifully positioned on the shores of lake Yngaren. The old mother tree to the famous Åkerö apple still stands in the gardens.    The castle has its own apple variety. The parent tree was planted in 1759 and still stands in the park and gives fruit every year.  Buildings have been on the property since the 1200s.  Several of the farm’s owners have belonged to Sweden’s most distinguished noble families;  Natt och Dag, Tott, Sture and Bielke.

In the mid 1500’s  a castle was built with turrets and towers that are depicted in Dahlberg’s “Suecia Antiqua”.  A part of the palace was burned a hundred years later and never refurbished.

The members of the Tessin family have been important in Swedish history. Nicodemus Tessin the Elder arrived there in 1636 and, alongside Jean de Vallée, became the country’s leading architect. His most famous work is Drottningholm Palace, which was completed by his son, Nicodemus Tessin the Younger, an even more significant architect whose major work is the Royal Palace in Stockholm. Nicodemus the Younger’s son, Carl Gustaf Tessin, was formally in charge of completing the Royal Palace, but was more noted as a diplomat and politician than as an architect. Carl Gustaf was one of the founders of the Hat Party and became one of the 1700s most important politicians with titles such as councilors, top Marshall and the Office of the President, the latter equal to the prime minister.

Carl-Gustaf Tessin purchased Åkerö in 1748.   Carl-Gustaf Tessin was then superintendent of the Royal Palace . The architect Carl Harleman was good friends with Tessin, and when CG Tessin wanted to retire from political life, they settled on the land and hired Carl Harleman. Harleman then designed the main building and proposed two wings. The result was one of the most beautiful rococo seats were filled with art treasures of Europe’s leading artists. As ambassador in Paris and during trips to Italy and Vienna had CG Tessin acquired a sound knowledge of architecture and art.

 Åkerö manor is beautifully surrounded by water from all sides. Beautiful maples, ash and linden trees are planted all around. Wall paintings, mirrors, door lintels, floors and countless antiques fill the space of the castle. .  The National Museum has a large part of Tessin’s art collection at the Royal Library in Stockholm. Nowadays, concerts are put on at Åkerö Manor in cooperation with Södermanlands Music & Theater.

There are not many pictures of Akerö, just these three below

Akerö in Södermanland, Sweden- Picture 1

Akerö in Södermanland, Sweden- Picture 2

Akerö in Södermanland, Sweden- Picture 3

Books Available on Amazon:

Nicodemus Tessin the Elder: Architecture in Sweden in the Age of Greatness

Nicodemus Tessin the Elder was an architect, gentleman, and founder of the artistic dynasty that was immensely influential at the Swedish court in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. He was architect to the crown, to the nobility, and to the city of Stockholm, and he supplied buildings for a wide range of functions, from palaces to banks, courthouses, and fortifications. His unusually extensive travels in the Netherlands, Italy, France and Germany provided him with a comprehensive picture of contemporary European architecture, which he drew on as he synthesized a new group of buildings that would attract
international attention as models for princely architecture. His productivity required a new approach to architecture, and he was part of the first generation of architects in northern Europe to develop the architectural studio, distinguishing the design process from the business of building, and in the
process recreating himself as the modern architect.

Essays on Scandinavian History

This book examines important aspects of the history of Sweden and its Nordic neighbors between the later eighteenth and the beginning of the twenty-first century. Historian H. Arnold Barton has selected thirteen of the numerous essays  he has published over the past forty years on the history of Scandinavia.

This is a companion volume to Barton’s The Old Country and the New, an essay collection on Swedish emigration and the Swedes in America. Included here are studies of the special significance of the eighteenth century in Sweden’s history and culture, the relationship of King Gustaf III to the eighteenth-century Enlightenment, the impact of the American Revolution in Sweden, and Gustaf III’s ambitions in the East Baltic region. Also detailed are the king’s early reaction to the French Revolution and his efforts to
organize a European coalition to crush it, a reassessment of the reign and internal reforms of Gustaf IV Adolf, and the Swedish succession crises of 1809 and 1810.

In addition, Barton examines the increasing tension between the Pan-Scandinavian movement and the rising Finnish national movement. He deals with the historians of the Danish Agrarian Reforms of 1784-1814, parallel developments in Finland and Norway between 1808 and 1917, the discovery of Norway abroad, Swedish national romanticism, and Sweden’s transition from a warfare state to a welfare
state, now exemplifying the rational and humane ideals of the twentieth century.

Essays on Scandinavian History highlights important topics in the history of the Scandinavian region, which has remained all too little known outside the Nordic lands themselves, while also offering broader perspectives on Europe since the mid-eighteenth century. Twelve keyed-to-text illustrations, a bibliography of Barton’s publications on Scandinavian history, essay endnotes, and an index augment this work.

A ‘musical’ Trompe l’oeil in one of the rooms of Akerö in Södermanland,

Sweden with a Rococo “Bonheur du Jour” Picture Credit –La Pouyette Blog