The castle is, and has always been, a privately owned castle. Its ownership can be traced back to Svante Sture. He lived during the reign of King Erik XIV, ruler of Sweden from 1560-1568. When King Erik XIV ascended the throne, he set about to win the favor of influential people in the Swedish aristocracy. One of his strategies toward that end was to bestow on three of Sweden most powerful nobles the title of 'count'. This was an unprecedented move in Swedish history, and one of the recipients of the title was Svante Sture. One of the first things Svante Sture did to exhibit his new-found status was built a stone house in 1952 on the site of the Ekenäs Castle.