On the shore of Lårstaviken, Wiks slott is a late-medieval fortified manor reshaped by seventeenth-century rebuilding and a nineteenth-century romantic restoration. Its stone-and-brick tower, parkland and long life as a school and regional public institution make it a layered heritage site southwest of Uppsala.
Quick facts
The estate is documented from the thirteenth century; the present castle was probably built in the fifteenth century, though its patron and exact date are uncertain.
In 1521, Knut Nilsson Rönnow defended Wik against Gustav Vasa’s forces for nearly twelve months, according to Uppsala Municipality’s heritage account.
Region Uppsala bought the castle in 1923; a folk high school moved to the site in 1926.
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Guide
Wiks slott rises from the shore of Lårstaviken, its tall stone-and-brick body marked by small corner turrets. The castle is often called one of Sweden’s best-preserved late-medieval fortified houses, but its present silhouette is a record of several eras: a defensive residence reshaped into a seventeenth-century manor and given romantic towers in the nineteenth century. The site lies in Balingsta, within Uppsala Municipality, about twenty kilometres southwest of Uppsala city.
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