Nolhaga (Nordhaga) has been mentioned since the 16th century. Together with Sörhaga, the farm formed a village called Hage or Hagen.
When Jonas Alström (noble Alströmer 1751) returned to his hometown of Alingsås in 1723 from his long stay in England and study trips in Europe, he bought Nolhaga and several adjoining farms and formed Nolhaga manor. Together with Alingsås manufactory inside Alingsås, Jonas Alström ran Nolhaga with several outbuildings, fields, plantations for medicinal plants, tobacco and dye plants for textile industries in the city, pipe mills, brickworks, saws, mills and a clothesline. At Nolhaga he also did experiments with potato cultivation and sheep and goat breeding.
At the end of the 1720s, a manor house was built on the same site where the current castle is located. It was a two-storey wooden building with a high stone base and about 20 rooms.
After Jonas Alströmer’s death in 1761, the estate was bought at auction by his son August, who soon after sold it to his brother Johan. Later, his daughter Sara Magdalena Nolhaga took over. In 1801, Nolhaga was sold to Major Volrath Tham, who in 1813 sold to his brother-in-law Jean Adelsköld.
Nolhaga changed owners a few more times until Claes Adelsköld, son of Jean Adelsköld and born in Nolhaga, bought the estate in 1877. The property was then very dilapidated after constant changes of ownership and the manor house was in such poor condition that it had to be demolished.
Claes Adelsköld was a major in the Road and Water Construction Corps and built railways in Sweden. He was also a member of parliament, a member of the Academy of Sciences, author, amateur photographer and artist.
As the new owner, Claes Adelsköld refurbished the entire Nolhaga.
At this time, Nolhaga consisted of 400 acres of fields, 300 acres of meadow and 2,000 acres of forest. Out of 5 acres, a beautiful garden was laid out and 9,000 trees and shrubs were planted for, among other things, an orchard, two orangeries, arbors and greenhouses. Claes Adelsköld blasted out the Clamp further and had water led through it from Bolltorp to irrigation, fountains and fire hydrants. He dredged the canals, refurbished the barn and other outbuildings.
The current castle was built in 1879-1880. It was designed in an Italian neoclassical villa style by Adrian Peterson, an architect in Gothenburg. On the ground floor there was a vestibule, dining room, kitchen and three guest rooms. The first floor had a vestibule and around it was the large lounge with the mirror stove and cabinet on both sides. There was also a library, study, billiard room, atrium, bedroom and toilet and bathroom. At the top were bedrooms, guest rooms and service rooms. From a lantern on the ceiling, daylight streamed down into the vestibules through matt sanded glass panels in the middle of the floors.
Claes Adelsköld owned Nolhaga until 1887 when he sold the manor to wholesaler Julius Lindström in Gothenburg. Then Nolhaga changed owners a few more times. In 1921, the property was divided into Gamla Nolhaga (the main farm) and Nya Nolhaga. In the same year, the city of Alingsås bought Gamla Nolhaga with the castle and adjoining park. Nolhaga Castle has had various functions, including as a guest house in the 1930s-40s, refugee camps and emergency housing. Between 1951 and 1969, the County Council’s business school was located in the castle.
Between the years 1970 and 2003, the Culture Committee rented the castle for its Art Gallery with an associated workshop for art pedagogical activities. The art gallery was also used for concerts, lectures and conferences. The small southwest room is the municipality’s wedding room. The walls there are covered with a series of French panoramic wallpapers printed in Paris by the company Dufour & Leroy in 1824. These used to hang in the salon with the mirror stove and were very popular in high-class furnishings during the early 20th century.
