Jan-Henrik Fallgren
Archaeologist
This is how Sörby castle - Öland's largest ancient castle - was rediscovered
With this year's Islander 2022 - Jan-Henrik Fallgren, archaeologist
It was known that it had existed, but not where it had been. In 2021, the archaeologist Jan-Henrik Fallgren discovered Sörby castle: Öland's largest ancient castle which had been mentioned in a treatise from the early 18th century but which had since been forgotten for more than 300 years. During the evening, Jan-Henrik Fallgren tells about how he managed to locate Sörby castle to Kvinnö, a headland at Skedemosse. During the Iron Age, there was a bog here where people sacrificed to the gods, now it is a drained lake.
This is how he describes the discovery in his own words: "When I arrived, I saw that here were the remains of a larger ring wall that had delimited the westernmost part of the island. I could tell that it actually looked like a ruined ancient castle of Öland style. But I thought it all too strange and thought no more of it at the time, but went back home to Aberdeen again. ... But several months later I woke up one evening and remembered certain special ownership conditions around Skedemosse and Kvinnö. I remembered that there was a connection with the village of Sörby and Kvinnö and just then I connected what I saw there with the information from 1704 about an ancient castle in the area called Sörbyborg. A castle that until then had never been identified.”
Subscribe to KLM-Play! https://kalmarlansmuseum.se/play/
