Kulturista - Cultural Experiences in West Sweden

C U LT U R E E X P E R I E N C E S I N W E S T S W E D E N 18 of the 17th century. With its towers, it seems to come straight from a fairy tale. In summer, visitors from all over the world flock to Läckö to listen to first-class opera in the impressive acoustics of the castle courtyard. D I S C O V E R L I T T L E C A S T L E G A R D E N – A G R E E N T R E A S U R E On the east side of Läckö Castle is the Little Castle Garden, where gardener Simon Irvine and his team work. Every spring they turn the earth by hand, carefully and methodically. And every autumn they build compost piles under the walnut trees. Everything is taken care of, for later use. If you want to learn more about what grows here, Simon and his colleagues are al- most always on site, and are happy to talk about the garden. Everything edible is harvested, and then used in the kitchen of the restaurant Hvita Hjorten, so the restaurateurs Katrin Ljung- blom and Stefan Söderholm always have high-quality, super-fresh ingredients to work with. centre, the Hvita Hjorten restaurant (recommended in the White Guide) and a hotel. Outside the building you can see the beginning of Europe’s largest lake archipelago, with some 22,000 islands. The best way to discover the beautiful Vänern archipelago is to paddle along the shoreline in a kayak, but there are also several pleasant wal- king trails. Experience the diverse birdlife of the peninsula along lakeside meadows, cliffs and a varied cultural landscape, with rock carvings from the Bronze Age. In the east, on the horizon, you can make out the plateau mountain, Kinnekulle. L Ä C K Ö – A F A I R Y-TA L E C A S T L E If the special Victoriahuset building was designed to harmonize with nature, the exact opposite is true of Läckö Castle, proudly positioned on a point overlooking Lake Vänern. Count and Chancellor of the Realm Magnus Gabriel de la Gardie gave the building its characteristic white baroque charm in the second half