Majestic and romantic, as if taken straight out of a Disney fairy tale, the castle sits right on the banks of the Svartån River. It is located next to the historic Frimurarholmen and the elegant Länsteatern, and just a few steps from Örebro Castle.
The castle was built in the late 1800s. Originally, Örebro Sparbank was housed within its stone walls—and, in fact, it was also home to a young boy named Hjalmar Bergman. A boy who eventually became a well-known author.
It has also housed a telegraph office, and for many years, from 1934 to 2013, the local newspaper Nerikes Allehanda had its main editorial office in Borgen.
Since 2016, the grand building with its turrets and towers has been a hotel. To be completely accurate, it’s called Home Hotel Borgen, but almost everyone simply calls it Borgen. So yes, definitely a castle.
Did you know this about Borgen?
Borgen's Secret Box
When Borgen was built, in keeping with the tradition of the time, a box containing various items and documents was sealed inside the walls. The box contained the bank’s name, the year, the king’s name and reign, the names of the board members, a copy of that day’s newspaper, as well as copper and silver coins.
This is where Hjalmar Bergman lived
Bank director Claes Bergman had a son, Hjalmar, who later became one of Sweden’s most famous authors. In the old days, the director’s family often lived in the same building as the bank, so little Hjalmar surely sat and watched the city and the hustle and bustle from the window of the family home. What he saw and heard may have laid the foundation for Bergman’s most widely read book—Markurells i Wadköping.
Literary quotes on the pillows
The decorative pillows on the bed are embroidered with quotes from Hjalmar Bergman’s books: “… but here there will be a first-class, exceptionally fine hotel with all the amenities and extravagances you’ve never even dreamed of.”
Newspaper nostalgia in the rooms
The numbers outside the hotel rooms resemble old typewriter keys, a nod to the nearly 80 years that the newspaper Nerikes Allehanda was based in the building. And perhaps you can still catch a whiff of freshly printed newspapers when you wake up in the morning?
What people are saying about Clarion Collection Hotel Borgen
