The round tower
Red, reflected in the lake.
Xauxa Håkan Svensson — CC BY-SA 3.0 · Osama Shukir Muhammed Amin FRCP(Glasg) — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Osama Shukir Muhammed Amin FRCP(Glasg) — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Annemarie Schwarzenbach — Public domain
Gripsholm Castle stands on the shore of **Lake Mälaren** by the small town of Mariefred, its round red tower reflected in the water — among the finest castles in Sweden and the easiest day trip from Stockholm. King **Gustav Vasa** built it from 1537 as a defensive fortress at a time when he was building a Swedish state independent of Denmark. It was reshaped across the centuries, particularly under Gustav III in the eighteenth. What distinguishes it from every other castle is the **national portrait collection**: more than four thousand portraits of notable Swedes from the sixteenth century to the present — kings, scientists, writers and politicians — the oldest national portrait collection in the world and still added to every year. It also holds **Gustav III's theatre** inside one of the towers, preserved with its original machinery. **Getting there is part of the pleasure**: a historic steamer sails from Stockholm in summer in about three hours, or a train and bus take an hour.
Red, reflected in the lake.
Inside a tower, with its original machinery.
Mariefred, Lake Mälaren
Sweden's third largest lake, running about a hundred and twenty kilometres west of Stockholm with more than a thousand islands. Stockholm itself stands where the lake empties into the Baltic — the city's name comes from that position. Its shores and islands hold the best of what surrounds Stockholm: **Drottningholm**, **Gripsholm** and **Skokloster** castles, **Sigtuna**, Sweden's oldest town, and the Viking island of **Birka** on the World Heritage list. Historic steamers work the lake in summer, and they are the best way to see it.