The Berg family
Peter Wilhelm Berg and Johanna Rönnow moved to Nääs during Easter week in 1825. The Berg family lived at Nääs for just over 40 years and loved the estate and life at Nääs. In 1833, Peter Wilhelm Berg founded a successful cotton mill in the village of Tollered, just southeast of Nääs.
Guided tours of the castle
From time to time, we offer open special tours about the Berg family’s time at Nääs. The special tour provides an in-depth account of the Berg family’s 43 years on the estate. The tour can also be booked by groups year-round.
More history
When they purchased the Nääs estate, the Berg family immediately began enthusiastically renovating the property. Using bricks fired at Nääs, they added a second storey to the main building, which had been a single-storey building since the mid-1700s. A magnificent stone barn was built (today’s stable), the buildings Mellannääs and Lilla Nääs were constructed, as well as the stone bridge over Lake Sävelången and a new stable with a grain store, where the restaurant, shop and reception are located today. The Berg family also renewed the old avenue, created carp ponds and a grand entrance with stone walls and gates. Peter Wilhelm had amassed a considerable fortune as a merchant in Gothenburg. The couple lived for a time at the Liseberg country estate. They had ten children, of whom seven died – four as very small children and three as young adults. In 1833, the Berg family established the cotton mill in Tollered, which remained in operation into the 1980s. Many of the houses built in connection with the factory were constructed using bricks fired at Nääs. A son, Gottfrid, inherited the Nääs estate upon his father’s death in 1854, and it was he who sold it to August and Euphrosyne Abrahamson in 1868.
The Great Hall on the second floor at Nääs is largely preserved exactly as it looked when Berg furnished the room when it was new in 1831. A classically beautiful room decorated in the Empire style, with blue wall paintings with gold stars and a mahogany piece of furniture with gilded details.
Guided tours in Tollered
Tours of the mill village of Tollered, just next to Nääs, can be booked year-round. Experience one of Sweden’s best-preserved mill villages on a historical walk of about 1 hour. Experienced local guides will take you on a 200-year-old, 1 km-long journey through the cultural heritage. The guide tells the story of the cotton mill: how it was started and operated into the 1980s. During the tour you will pass factory buildings, old offices, the fire station, the hydroelectric power plant, workers’ and officials’ housing, the school, the inn and old mills.
For more information and booking enquiries, email info@naas.se or hej@smedjanitollered.se.
