Knutstorp Castle in Sweden - Birthplace of Tycho Brahe

Castles of Sweden

Knutstorp Castle in Kagerod, Sweden may not look all that grand upon first glance, but it is well worth a visit if you find yourself in the Skane area of Sweden. Located in what is now Svalov Kommun, Knutstorp's claim to fame is that it is the birthplace of renowned astronomer Tycho Brahe.

As near as anyone can tell, Knutstorp was once a huge and very grand castle. This is back in the 1300s, when the Skane area still belonged to Denmark. Tycho's dad, Otto Brahe, was pretty high up the ladder in the Danish line of noblemen... much as his son would grow up to be. It is unclear exactly what happened to the original structure, but it was surprisingly not one of King Valdemar's destructions. He leveled a lot of places, but not this one. Whatever happened to it, Tycho was born here in 1546 and then Otto built the structure you see today in 1551. A bit later after much blood shed, Skane became part of Sweden. So even though Tycho was born in what is now Sweden, he is Danish. Ya follow that?

If you are not into astronomy then you may be wondering just who the hell is this Tycho Brahe person anyway. So I'll tell you a bit about him. Tycho was a renowned astronomer, astrologer, and alchemist back in the day.

On 11th November 1572 he observed a new brilliant star in the constellation of Cassiopeia. Tycho's measurements showed that it really was a distant star and not any local phenomena. This was very intriguing at that time, since the sphere of the stars was considered to be divine and perfect, hence no changes ought to take place there. Tycho observed its brightness evolve until it faded away the next year. He reported the event in his book "De stella nova", which made him famous all over Europe. ~ http://www.tychobrahe.com

He was so important in the 1500s that the Danish King gave him his own Island, now called Ven. You can visit the Tycho Brahe museum there and learn more about this controversial dude.