"Jens Holgerß af Glimynge" Om en borgbyggares intentioner
Glimmingehus is one of the most well preserved medieval castles in Sweden. This essay examines why it was built ? what were the intentions of the Lord, Jens Holgersen? Even though we?ll never be able to ask him, the answer to the question ?why?? can give us aninsight of how a man of his position thought in the Late Medieval time. To answer the question the castle are explored through three different angles ? the Lord of the castle and thesocial context the castle was built in, the landscape surrounding Glimmingehus ? has Jens Holgersen left any structural clues there, and finally the castle itself ? how has a potential visitor experienced Glimmingehus? The methods are greatly influenced by Gunhild Eriksdotter, who in her book Bakom fasaderna explores the possibilities of an analysis ofexperience together with an analysis of function in the archaeology of buildings. The analysis in this essay is also based on the ideas of Matthew Johnson and Martin Hansson concerningthe spatial ideology of the medieval lords, and how they show that ideology in the landscape and their castles. The result of this approach shows that Glimmingehus was built by JensHolgersen as a personal project to highlight himself as a part of the upper nobility and as anindividual. Thus not said that Glimmingehus only has a symbolic meaning - to Jens Holgersenand his contemporaries the symbolic meaning of Glimmingehus was something real and couldtruly affect the position one had in the society.