Scenografi för ett ståndsmässigt liv. Adelns slottsbyggande i Skåne 1840-1900

Sammanfattning: This thesis examines the building activity of the landed Nobility in the affluent province of Scania, Southern Sweden between 1840 and 1900. The new and rebuilt country houses were often created by the modernisation of previous buildings at the same location. They are referred to as 'New Palaces' in this thesis, a term chosen in order to emphasise the strong historical influence on this process. The stylistic changes of exteriors, interiors and ground plans are described and analysed. The thesis focuses in particular on the main buildings of the estates at Jordberga, Söfdeborg, Kulla Gunnarstorp, Trolleholm and Kronovall. These New Palaces were built in a variety of styles with marked differences between early and late examples. The study is based on a combination of source material encompassing letters, diaries, drawings, newspaper articles, autobiographies and photographs as well as still surviving palace buildings. The material is analysed from a variety of perspectives, to reveal possible motivations behind the projects, and the relationship in the building process between the architect and client, as well as those between man and woman. The ambitious (and occasionally ostentatious) architecture of the New Palaces is traditionally interpreted by many scholars as having served a symbolic purpose. It is seen as a natural reaction by a Swedish nobility stripped of their historical privileges in a new era; an attempt to compensate for the loss of their social and legal status. This study reveals several other motivations and driving forces behind the use of historical architecture by the Scanian nobility of the time. One theme that emerges is that, over the course of the 19th century, architecture increasingly became a project for the individual. At the same time, however, it becomes clear that there were limits to the acceptance of individual expression in a culture that was traditionally homogeneous and whose fundamental and unifying force consisted of a common expression shared by its representatives ? buildings and people alike. Today most of the New Palaces are seen as typically Scanian and this thesis also discusses whether they were an attempt to build a regional identity through architecture, examining claims that 19th-century nobles used historical styles, consciously or unconsciously, to express associations with Scania or the Swedish nation, or to express their past associations with neighbouring Denmark.