About the manor

The von Echstedtska manor was built between 1762 and 1764 and has close to Carolingian charachteristics with the austere low manor house and the two pairs of wings. Inside the main building, Rococo flourishes. Already in the foyer, visitors are greeted by a pair of ­grenadiers from Adolf Fredrik’s reign and in the great hall there are paintings with biblical motifs.

Even the secret house has burlesque ­decorations that are unparalleled in the country. The manor is perhaps the most peculiar of the county Värmland’s preserved old manor ­houses. A visit here will entice your summer in several ways. In addition to a fantastic ­surroundings, the site offers guided tours, a café with a shop, Värmland’s gene bank of apples in orchard and an always fragrant herb garden.

On the highest point in front of the café, with a great view of the lake Summeln, you can enjoy a delicious coffee with inspiration and ­ingredients from the region. In the yard, ­children of all ages can have fun with different types of older games that are still around ­today.

Christina & Bengt lived on the farm

von Echstedtska manor, or Smedby manor as it was called at the time, is located in Kila ­parish in Värmland and is owned by ­Värmlands Museum. There have been people and ­settlements here, since the Stone Age,
and you can see traces of this all around in the nature if you look closely. Deputy judge Bengt von Echstedt (1723–1794) and his wife Christina Catharina Herwegh (1718–1780) settled here in the early 1760s.

He was a trained lawyer but retired from his government service at the age of 35. She was from Alster parish, from a family whose wealth came from iron works, she had been widowed a few years earlier. The couple was married in 1759 and the ­transformation of Smedby began shortly ­afterwards. Existing buildings were demolished to make way for the new manor. How come they choose this place far from the city’s ­pleasures? The place was probably as beautiful then as it is now, with the manor house on a hill overlooking Lake Summeln. The master of the house also had brothers living nearby.

Little did they know then, that this place 250 years later would be a museum where ­people could experience one of Sweden’s most well-preserved 18th-century milieus. That their murals would be shown in the inter­national press and that several thousand ­people every summer would try their outhouse. Or did they imagine this?