- Julita Abbey
Julita Abbey was a
Cistercian monastery in the parish ofJulita inOppunda Hundred ,Södermanland ,Sweden .The monastery was originally founded in
1160 at Viby, close toSigtuna , but under the patronage of KingKnut Eriksson , who donated land and a right to parts of the fishing atÄlvkarleby , it was moved in1180 to "Säby" by the lakeÖljaren in Julita. The monastery was therefore also known as "Säby", or "Saba" in Latin. It continued to receive rich donations from KingErik Knutsson (1210-1216), and later from other members of the aristocracy and royal circles. It was finally the owner of some 80 farms, mostly in Södermanland. At the time of theProtestant Reformation , KingGustavus Vasa appropriated the abbey and gave it infief to Olof Arvidsson, a bailiff inNyköping , in1527 . The secular estate thus created later had various possessors, including members of thePalbitzki andLewenhaupt families. [Torvald Höjer and Wbg (signatures), "Julita", "Nordisk familjebok", vol. 13 (1910), [http://runeberg.org/nfbm/0150.html col. 268 f] ]In 1944, the
Nordic Museum assumed the ownership of the estate in accordance with the will of the last private owner, Artur Bäckström. The manor is now a largeopen air museum , incorporating a small part of the abbey in the basement of one of its wings, which is open to the public. [The history of Julita manor at the [http://www.nordiskamuseet.se/Publication.asp?publicationid=4450&cat=424&catName=wwj%2Ehistoria Nordic museum] (linked 2008-08-19, in Swedish)] Together with another small building originally located outside the cloisters, this is all that can be seen of the abbey today, though archaeological excavations have revealed the full extent of the main abbey bulidings. [Ralph Edenheim and Hans A. Lidén, Julita kloster. Royal Swedish Academy of Letters, History and Antiquities, Stockholm, 1978. ISBN 91-7402-062-5. (Archaeological report, in Swedish with a summary in English)]References
External links
* [http://www.nordiskamuseet.se/publication.asp?publicationid=5065 Julita manor] . Information in English at the
Nordic Museum website (linked 2008-08-19)
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