Tour audio Malmö Castle History

Malmö Castle

There are so many tales to tell about Malmö Castle. Many different kinds of people lived here, from kings and queens, to princes and princesses, lords and ladies, goldsmiths, prisoners, soldiers and refugees.

In 1397 Eric of Pomerania ruled over the Nordic Kingdoms. Previously he was the grandnephew to Queen Margaret the First of Denmark. Margaret was Queen of the Kalmar Union, Scandinavia’s largest union project through the ages, including Sweden, Norway and Denmark and reaching as far as Iceland and even Greenland. When Margaret lost her only son Olof, she adopted Eric. As fate would have it, Erik became king and it was thought that he would carry on her great work.  Eric of Pomerania went on to make huge changes for Malmö. In 1434, Erik built Malmö castle, he then founded its coat of arms, with an eagle and a lion, the same symbol we use on the Malmö flag today. He built a wall that extended along the seashore to Drottningtorget with small doors along the side. When merchants entered from other lands they had to pay customs, this gave Malmö a stable economy.

Although King Eric’s pursuits were very fruitful for Malmö, his political power was greatly diminished over a long period of time and he was eventually dethroned by Christopher of Bavaria in 1439. Christopher turned the castle into a Mint, a place where they manufactured money!  For almost one hundred years between 1444 – 1536 all of Denmark’s money was made in Malmö. This made Malmö a very important city due to the political power afforded by the mint.

The 16th century was the heyday of the castle. The Danish royalty lived here, a long lineage of kings named Christian and Frederik, as is tradition in the Danish monarchy to name the first son one of these names. Even today the Danish Prince Frederik’s son is called Christian.

1658 was an important year for Sweden as Denmark relinquished Scania to Sweden by the Treaty of Roskilde. This power shift lead to a period of unrest between Sweden and Denmark. Sweden built an advanced fortress around the castle to defend against possible attacks. When the crisis abated so did the interest in the castle. The castle entered a period of decline and was eventually used as a warehouse for storing grain and weapons. In 1828 the Malmö Correctional Facility took over. Up to one thousand people were imprisoned in the same castle that once housed the Danish Royalty.  The prison closed in 1909.

The first suggestions to convert the old prison came in 1923 and so an architectural competition took place. Architect Carl-Axel Stoltz won the competition, the prison rows were demolished to make space for what will be a state-of-the-art museum. Malmö museum opened with great fanfare in 1937.