Herresta is a large estate in Södermanland County

Södermanland County

Södermanland County is a county or län on the south east coast of Sweden. It borders the counties of Östergötland, Örebro, Västmanland, Uppsala, Stockholm and to the Baltic sea....

 in Sweden

Sweden

Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....

, located outside Mariefred

Mariefred

Mariefred is a locality situated in Strängnäs Municipality, Södermanland County, Sweden with 3,813 inhabitants in 2005.The name is derived from that of the former Carthusian monastery here, Mariefred Charterhouse, and means "Peace of Mary"...

. It has been in the possession of the Paus

Paus

Paus is a Norwegian and Swedish family of clergymen, civil servants, merchants, industrialists and land-owners, among others, traceable back to the late 15th century and a man named Oluf...

 family since 1923.

The manor lies beautifully adjacent to Herrestaviken, which was previously connected to Mälaren

Mälaren

Lake Mälaren is the third-largest lake in Sweden, after Lakes Vänern and Vättern. Its area is 1,140 km² and its greatest depth is 64 m. Mälaren spans 120 kilometers from east to west...

. Previous owners include Admiral Baron Jonas Fredrik Örnfelt. He built the main house in stone in 1718, using Russian prisoners of war. Count Johan Georg Lillienberg

Johan Georg Lillienberg

Johan Georg Lillienberg was a Swedish count and politician. He was appointed as Lawspeaker of Gotland in 1746. In 1749, he became Governor of Åbo and Björneborg, and in 1757 Governor of Uppsala County...

, who was Governor of Uppsala and President of the Appellate Court, among other offices, extended the manor substantially. In 1810, Herresta was sold to wealthy Stockholm businessman Carl Adolph Grevesmühl

Carl Adolph Grevesmühl

Carl Adolph Grevesmühl was a Swedish businessman from Stockholm. His furniture business made him a very rich man. He was commissioned by King Gustav III of Sweden to furnish Stockholm Castle. Grevesmühl owned the Zinkensdamm estate between 1790 and 1811, and in 1810, he bought...

. His descendants sold the manor to the Norwegian count Christopher de Paus

Christopher de Paus

Christopher Tostrup Paus, from 1923 The Count of Paus, usually known as Christopher Paus was a Norwegian land owner, papal chamberlain and count, known as philanthropist, art collector and socialite in the late 19th and early 20th century...

 in 1923. Himself childless, he bequeathed the estate to a distant relative, Herman Paus, who was married to a granddaughter of Count Leo Tolstoy

Leo Tolstoy

Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy was a Russian writer who primarily wrote novels and short stories. Later in life, he also wrote plays and essays. His two most famous works, the novels War and Peace and Anna Karenina, are acknowledged as two of the greatest novels of all time and a pinnacle of realist...

, the Russian novelist. The manor is currently owned by their descendants.

As of 1907, the estate included Herresta säteri and additionally 13 agricultural properties, totalling 15 mtl

Mantal

Mantal has been an official measure of land in Finland and in Sweden.The mantal is a measure of the wealth of a farm, not a simple unit of area, as it depends on the productivity of the land. It is an apportionment figure. A cameral measurement instrument of the wealth of the farm...

.