History
Construction began in the 1380s on the castle's southern side. It was first mentioned in 1388 in the contract of Queen Margaret I of Denmark, where a large portion of the inheritance of Bo Jonsson Grip, the castle's first occupier, was given to the queen. The mansus unit rŏk, a taxation term, was first introduced during the 14th century for the maintenance of the castle.
The heyday of the castle was in the 15th and 16th centuries. When Niels Eriksen Gyldenstjerne, Danish Steward of the Realm during the period of 1453–1456, received the Kastelholm fief in 1485, he did so with the understanding that he was "faithfully to build and improve the walls and buildings of the said castle of Kastelholm, which are needful for the said castle, to the benefit and use of the crown of Sweden, as he has promised us willingly to do". Of the several enhancements made to the original construction, one of the most notable was by Gustav Vasa, before he became king of Sweden, who regularly used to hunt on the castle grounds. In fact, the hunting-grounds of the castle's forests were protected by law permitting only the castle's governor and the king to hunt here.
Kastelholm developed a shipyard employing 50 shipwrights in the 16th century. However, in 1505 the Danish naval officer Søren Norby captured the castle from the Swedes. The presence of Gypsies in Finland is first mentioned in the castle's record books in 1559. King John III kept his deposed brother Eric XIV in captivity in the castle in the Fall of 1571. In the late 16th century, the castle belonged to Katarina Stenbock, an enemy of the King of Sweden Eric XIV. With the help of cannons, the castle was damaged severely when the forces of king Charles IX conquered it in the 1599 civil war.
The damages were repaired by 1631. However, due to a change in the county system, Åland was joined with the County of Åbo and Björneborg at which time Kastelholm lost its status as an administrative centre and its overall importance just three years after the damages were repaired. From the late 1600s began the castle to decay and much of it burned down in an extensive fire in 1745. For a time, it served as a prison but by the 1770s it was abandoned. At some point after 1809, the post office was moved from the castle to the Bomarsund, as was the Russian Commandant's secretariat.
Kastelholm was partly used as a granary and as a quarry for local farmers in the 1930s. A restoration program, advanced from 1982 through 1989, involved archaeological excavations. Today, much of the Kastelhom Castle is reconstructed and since the 1990s has contained the Outdoor Museum Jan Karlsgården
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