History
There have been numerous owners since Viking Sote first claimed the Häringe Peninsula as his property in the 11th century. The common denominators for all of the owners have been megalomania, extreme wealth, crazy investments, excessive spending, glamour, decadence, scandals and party, party, party!
King Gustav Vasa had a residence here in 1525 and made this the base for his naval fleet, Count Gustav Horn replaced the wooden palace with the stone one still standing today in 1657. Numerous strong women like Agneta Horn and Agneta Wrede inherited the palace after that and opened illegitimate bars, orphanages and other projects unfit for women at the time. Some even defied society and married for love.
In the 1930s Torsten Kreuger who made a fortune out of the Swedish safety Match, renovated and modernized it with refrigerators, Sweden’s first outdoor pool with a slide from the second floor bathroom, a bowling alley and even a tunnel that connects one of the wings with the palace. A few years later when Torsten Kreuger was charged with fraud, he sold the palace to his good friend Axel Wenner-Gren, the founder of Electrolux, in good faith that he would get it back once out of trouble. Axel gave the palace to his wife Margueritte with the words "Häringe is yours, baby!", needless to say without any intention to sell it back to Kreuger. The couple filled the palace with antique furniture, silver, weapons and tapestries. The park was decorated with statues from Peru and Ireland as well as limestone statues of Nordic gods.
After Axel's death the palace was emptied of all valuable items, so when Olle Hartwig, a.k.a the Cray Fish King (he made his fortune selling the delicacy), bought the palace it was more or less empty. By studying pictures from the Wenner-Gren albums, Hartwig managed to repurchase most of the furniture, paintings and tapestries, which are still to be found at the palace today.
In 1999, the Ljungberg family bought c/o Häringe Palace and it is now part of the exclusive chain of historical hotels called c/o Hotels.
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