Stora Sundby - "The Swedish Abbotsford"

Stora Sundby, "the Swedish Abbotsford", in a late 19th century photograph. 

The books of Sir Walter Scott made him and his Abbotsford House well known all over the world. Sweden was no exception.

When the rich nobleman, count Carl de Geer in 1824 bought the 16th century manor Sundby Hus at lake Hjälmaren in Södermanland, his wife, who had read Scott's novels about the noble knight Ivanhoe, wanted their new home to be converted to a "Swedish Abbotsford". 

The count did not want to disappoint his countess, which is why an English architect, Peter Frederick Robinson, was commissioned to redesign the old manor in the style of Abbotsford. The conversion was not an easy task, which is why it took 16 years to complete. But in 1848 the new "romantic knight's castle" was finally inaugurated. 

The house, renamed Stora Sundby (Great Sundby) by de Geer, is now the home of Johan and Tina Klingspor and their children.   

For a comparison, here is a late 19th century photo of the real Abbotsford, which became a model for the modern revival of the Scottish baronial style: