Design No. 38 — Restoration of Castle Gunnarstrop, Sweden
It has been remarked in the Introduction, that the localities in which a residence can be placed greatly affect their picturesque appearance. The north and west Highlands of Scotland, in our own country, and a similar class of scenery in Sweden and Norway, greatly aid by their natural beauties the best effects of the architect, and generally in northern Europe, including Denmark with the above-named countries, those accessories can be largely taken advantage of. An instance of this can be found in the design now under consideration. In this castle the gables are carried up to a greater height, and made more ornamental and of greater importance than with us. In the year 1852 the author was making a design for a villa for the Count de Bark, a Swedish nobleman. It was to be erected on the heights bordering the Sound near Copenhagen, and was seen from the sea in passing, peering above the trees. The upper part of the villa was made as picturesque as possible, with a tower, battlements, and turrets. The lower part of the building was very plain, and the plan merely contained a few living rooms and servants’ apartments; it was much unlike our style, and is therefore not given here: only the view from the vignette is afforded in this description. The Count’s uncle occupied the old castle, the Vrams Gunnarstrop in Sweden, then very much out of repair and unfitted for the requirements of modern domestic life.
It was planned originally on a grand scale; the fronts had high triangular gables in steps, and decorated with cut granite ornaments, but the whole was very plain. The north front was in two floors, and the angle towers of the building had only two floors. The portions between one storey—that of the ground floor—thus had to be raised. The ground floor was given to the servants, and the southern portion of the building was to remain for a time in its then existing state. The plan shows a, the grand staircase, adorned with columns supporting the upper landing. It was 27 ft. in length by 26 ft. in width, and led up to an ante-room b, in the centre of the building, 26 ft. in length by 12 ft. in breadth. It opened into the first and second drawing-rooms, c and d: one 30 ft. in length, the other 40 ft., and both of a width of 26 ft.
The dining-room e, entered from the chief drawing-room, was 40 ft. in length, with a width of 22 ft.; f shows the gallery or library filled with book-cases, and leading to the day-room h; the chief bedroom is shown at i adjoining, k is the lady’s dressing-room, l the gentleman’s dressing-room and bath; m is the nursery, with a servants’ staircase and closet adjoining; g is the servants’ serving-place at the entrance of dining-room. The light portions of the plan show the additions made; the black, the old portions of the castle. The two towers contained staircases to the attics which were formed in the high roofs.
The principal elevation faced the west. The perspective view of this front is given. Its length is 130 ft., and the height of the principal entrance from the ground to the top of the gable is 60 ft.
The south and west sides were of an equally picturesque character, but neither had any central gable. The south had triple dormer windows joined in the centre with one dormer window at each side. The two towers were seen rising above the roof, and a wide terrace with open stone Elizabethan balustrading extending the entire front, with steps down to the garden in the centre below. The terrace was 130 ft. in length. The west side had the two gables, one at each end, with three tall dormer windows in the roof; these were connected by wood balustrading, and a window with three lights was placed below each. The granite-stone ornaments in the old fronts were replaced in the new fronts.
The vignette gives a view of a small garden fountain, designed from one in the old garden at Blickling in Norfolk. The plinth is hexangular in plan, with the scrolls projecting on the three sides. To the top of the jet its height is about 9 feet.