Stora Nyckelviken, Manor house and vacation home in Nacka, Sweden
Stora Nyckelviken is a two-story wooden house with yellow-painted exterior panels designed to resemble stonework, featuring extensions from the 1760s. The estate now operates as an event venue with a summer area and houses a museum in an adjacent red-painted building.
Herman Petersen, director of the East India Company, commissioned the construction of the estate in 1746 as his summer residence near Stockholm. Its completion came during an era when wealthy merchants from shipping and mining ventures began building summer homes on the city's outskirts.
The red-painted southern wing contains the local heritage museum, displaying exhibitions about regional history, traditional crafts, and everyday objects from the past.
The estate is most accessible during the summer months when the summer cafe operates and the museum opens to visitors on Sundays. These are the best times to visit if you want to take a guided tour of the property.
The building displays the characteristic yellow paint with stone imitation, a favored method among wealthy merchants to make their summer homes appear more grand than the materials would suggest. This visual trick was a practical solution to achieve architectural sophistication without the expense of actual stone construction.
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