Ebba Brahe’s Pavilion
“If I’m fined, I’ll pay, but then I’ll make as much iron as I want,” once said Ebba Brahe (1596–1674), the ironworks owner who, in her youth, had a romantic relationship with the young King Gustav II Adolf. However, she eventually married Jacob de la Gardie and managed all his numerous estates while bearing him 14 children.
Ebba Brahe was only 15 years old when her mother died, and her father, the count, sent her to the royal court to receive a proper upbringing. Around the same time as Ebba arrived at the palace, the king passed away, and the 17-year-old Prince Gustav Adolf was crowned king.
Ebba and Gustav II Adolf found a connection, which Dowager Queen Christina tried to prevent at all costs. For three years, Ebba and Gustav II Adolf kept their hopes alive that they would one day be together. The young king repeatedly wrote letters to his mother during his travels, attempting to change her mind, but it was futile. Eventually, the young couple gave up.
Three years later, Ebba accepted the proposal of Jacob de la Gardie, a Swedish Privy Councillor, after he asked for her hand a second time. She soon became an indispensable wife to him. Since Jacob was often away at war or involved in other crucial national duties, Ebba managed the family’s estates and ironworks. When Jacob passed away in 1652, she took charge as the ironworks manager for all of Jacob’s properties across Sweden, running them with a firm hand and according to her own vision.
Earlier, she had inherited the Bockhammar ironworks in Skinnskatteberg Municipality from her father, Magnus Brahe. There, she had a pavilion built on an islet in the ironworks’ pond.
The pavilion still stands today in the same spot and is likely Sweden’s oldest pavilion, bearing the year 1636 on its weather vane.
There are many things one might remember about Ebba Brahe, but for many, her tragic love story with Gustav II Adolf lives on in the imagination. It is said that Ebba occasionally appears in Bockhammar’s park or around the pavilion to inspire people toward goodness and loyalty. According to legend, since her youth, she had two songs in her heart—one in a major key and the other in a minor key—that she would sing from the pavilion. After her death in 1674, the birds on Bockholm sing her songs.
When iron production began to boom in the 17th century, Sweden’s wealthy merchants and nobility realized how profitable it was to purchase furnaces and forges and develop them into ironworks. Ebba Brahe’s father was no exception. He already owned Uttersberg ironworks and jumped at the chance to purchase Bockhammar as well. When Ebba inherited the ironworks, she increased production and improved the quality of the iron.
Facts
Likely the country’s oldest pavilion, dated 1636.
Bockhammar ironworks operated from 1607 to 1880, with a bar iron forge, three hammers, and for a short time, a blast furnace.
Today, the only remnants are the pink pavilion, renovated in 2021, and a manor house from 1817.
In the 18th century, estate owner Jacob Ramsell acquired the ironworks, merging it with his Färna ironworks and founding the Färna and Bockhammar fideicommiss, which became Sweden’s largest.
Visits are self-guided, and the site is well signposted.
