Sweden · 4th century
Eketorp Fort ranks #1,331 of 9,040 worldwide in the atlas's castle fame ranking, and #33 of the 209 mapped in Sweden. Founded c. 350, it is older than 97% of the atlas's dated landmarks, one of 15 atlas entries founded in the 4th century. Its Wikipedia articles were opened 3,188 times in the last 60 days, more than 79% of the atlas. 3 more atlas landmarks stand within 25 km. See how Sweden compares in the castle statistics.
Eketorp is an Iron Age fort, located in southeastern Öland, Sweden, and extensively reconstructed and enlarged in the Middle Ages. Throughout the ages the fortification has served a variety of somewhat differing uses: from defensive ringfort, to medieval safe haven and thence a cavalry garrison. In the 20th century it was further reconstructed to become a heavily visited tourist site and a location for re-enactment of medieval battles. Eketorp is the only one of the 19 known prehistoric fortifications on Öland that has been completely excavated, yielding a total of over 24,000 individual artifacts. The entirety of southern Öland has been designated as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO. The Eketorp fortification is often referred to as Eketorp Castle.
Text adapted from “Eketorp” on Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0.
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