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Showing posts with the label Gripsholm's castle

Blogging Anniversary - 10 years

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A while ago I checked when I did my first blog post, in order to celebrate with an anniversary post. Well, that day came and went without any reaction from me. Better late than never, so here a reminder of my very first blog post from 24 October 2012.  The book was New Finnish Grammar  by Diego Marani. Marani is an Italian novelist, translator and newspaper columnist. While working as a translator for the European Union he invented a language ‘Europanto’ which is a mixture of languages and based on the common practice of word-borrowing usage of many EU languages. It was a suitable book to start with, being a book about letters, languages and memories. With a beautiful prose, the novel went directly to my heart.  "One night at Trieste in September 1943 a seriously wounded soldier is found on the quay. The doctor, of a newly arrived German hospital ship, Pietri Friari gives the unconscious soldier medical assistance. His new patient has no documents or anything that can ide...
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Bookmarks

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It was quite a while ago since I posted a new bookmark. Finally, I got hold of a beautiful one when we visited the Gripsholm Castle in Sweden in the beginning of June. The castle is situated in Mariefred, about 60 km west of Stockholm. It was built by Gustav Vasa (the first king of the Vasa dynasty) between 1537 and 1545 and was to be served as one of the main residences of the royal house. The times were worried and it was used both as a safe retreat for the royal children, during the Dacke revolt and as a prison. The oldest son of Gustav Vasa, Erik XIV imprisoned his brother John and his wife Catherine Jagiellon in the castle. Thus happened that their son Sigismund, later to be the King of Poland and Sweden, was born there in 1566. When John deposed of his brother Erik XIV, Gripsholm was one of the castles where he was kept prisoner from 1571 until 1573. The brothers, half brothers, were not the best of friends. During the coming centuries the castle was used by the royal family at v...
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