Sofiero castle 1876
Picture from www.sofiero.se
5 km north of Helsingborg you will find Sofiero. Sofiero is a formerly royal summer residence with a fantastic garden.
It was built between 1864 and 1965 and became the summer residence  of the Royal family.
Today, Sofiero has a unique palace park, which includes one of Europe's largest collections of rhododendron, with more than 10,000 plants and 500 different species. And it is open for visitors.
In 1864 Crown Prince Oscar and his wife Sophia bought the Skabelycke homestead, situated to the north of Helsingborg, and built their summer castle Sofie-ro (“Sophie's peace”) there. The Castle was completed in the following year, but it looked very different to the way it looks today, being only one storey high.
Sofiero was rebuilt to the look it has today between 1874 and 1976 when the couple had become King and Queen.
Sofiero - 1874 - King Oskar II and Queen Sofia in front
Sofiero castle
Picture from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
In 1905, Oscar II's grandchild Prince Gustaf Adolf, future King Gustaf VI Adolf, and his wife, crown princess Margaret received the palace as a wedding gift. They renovated the palace and started the large Rhododendron garden for which the palace is known today.
Oscar and Sophia were to spend many wonderful summers at Sofiero but, in 1905, they gave it as a wedding gift to their grandson Gustav Adolf when he married his first wife Margareta from England. On a sunny July day about a month after the wedding, Gustav Adolf and Margareta arrived in a horse-drawn carriage through an entrance lavishly adorned with oak leaves and topped with a royal crown. The people of Helsingborg waved the Swedish and British flags in a warm welcome for Sofiero’s new owners.
Crown Prince Gustav Adolf and Crown Princess Margareta were both extremely interested in gardening and it was not long before a new garden started emerging at Sofiero.
Crown princess Margareta working in the garden - 1915
Crown Princess Margareta, who grew up among the magnificence of traditional English gardens, was extremely knowledgeable about plants and had a well-developed sense of colour and form. With her expertise and curiosity about gardening she involved herself in the creation of Sofiero’s flowerbeds and walkways. Together, Margareta and Gustav Adolf developed rock gardens, planted rhododendrons and created beautiful borders as well as a kitchen garden. A greenhouse was built and a professional gardener hired. In less than fifteen years they had created a stunning park and garden.
Prince Gustaf Adolf become king in 1950 and until 1973 Sofiero was his and his second wife Lady Louise Mountbatten's official summer residence. It was supposedly the King's favorite place and upon his death, which occurred in Helsingborg, he left Sofiero to the city of Helsingborg so that the general public could enjoy it as much as he had.
Kungavagnen S3K 2904 in Helsingborg 1970
Fun to know! The King, Gustav VI Adolf had his summer house Sofiero just north of Helsingborg. He always travelled between Stockholm and Helsingborg with the train and he had his own blue car. Kungavagnen S3K 2904, King's car S3K 2904 in English. Whenever he was at town his railway car was parked on a track between the Central station and Järnvägsgatan. A track they called the King's track.
Gustav VI Adolf arrives to Helsingborg 1972, one year before his death
Picture by Kalle Lind HD - NST
Kungavagnen S3K 2904 in Helsingborg 1972
Picture by Kalle Lind HD - NST
On the picture above we can see the “King's track”, a side track for Kungavagnen S3K 2904. But what's more interesting is the track on the left hand side. This is the, well, it was the track between Helsingborg F (Ferry terminal) and Helsingborg C (Central Station)
Anyway, the King's car was parked on the “King's track” whenever he was visiting Sofiero, and that means it was parked there most of the summer. Even I remember the blue train car standing there from when I was just a wee lad.
Read more here:
Kungavagnen tillbaka i Helsingborg - Helsingborgs Dagblad
När kungen var i stan - Helsingborgs Dagblad
SOFIERO CASTLE TODAY
Gustavus Adolphus died in 1973, and left Sofiero in his will to the city of Helsingborg. The garden continued to develop in the same spirit as before, while the Castle slumbered like Sleeping Beauty. It was not until 1993 that a radical renovation of the Castle itself was carried out. The roof was replaced, the facade and windows were restored, while the interior was retained in its original design. Everything was done with a reverent sense for style.
Sofiero castle
Picture from visit Skåne
A bus connection leaves several times an hour during peak hours from Helsingborg. The main attraction today is the very large gardens with a wide range of local (and other) plant life, stretching to the shore of Öresund. The Rhododendrons, consisting of almost 500 different varieties. The castle itself is today used as restaurant, cafe and at times as a gallery.
THE CASTLE GARDEN
Sofiero garden
Many expert gardeners and designers now work at Sofiero to preserve the heritage that Margareta and Gustav Adolf left behind, with the royal couple’s same innovative attitude. Gustav VI Adolf’s rhododendrons and Margareta’s flowerbeds are still the garden’s finest attractions, and these have since been supplemented with a beautiful dahlia area, a pleasure garden and an impressive kitchen garden.
The Labyrinth - Sofiero garden
The Well - Sofiero garden - Click HERE for bigger picture
It is a beautiful garden
Bird watching in Sofiero Garden July 2018
It is a beautiful garden
Bird watching in Sofiero Garden July 2018
It is a beautiful garden
Bird watching in Sofiero Garden July 2018
I don't know about you, but after reading this I want to go visit the park to see if I can find some birds. I was visiting the park, two times. Once as a child and I just remember that it was boring. Second time was to see a band playing, and that was not much more exciting. But at an old age, well, I would not mind go to visit.
PDF Map of the Sofiero garden if you click HERE And again, they have manage to impress me, sofiero.se have all the information you need, and in English!
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