Korsnäs Gård (ISKCON Sweden)
Botkyrka Municipality, Stockholm County, Sweden
- Deities
- Radha Krishna
- Traditions
- vaishnava
- Worship status
- active
- Address
- Korsnäs Gård, 147 92 Grödinge, Sweden
- Coordinates
- 59.15472, 17.80389
- Darshan hours
- Daily, 4:30 am-8:00 pm; free parking on site; consult ISKCON Sweden (krishna.se) directly for the current schedule before visiting.
- Best time to visit
- Janmashtami and other major Gaudiya Vaishnava festivals, consistent with other ISKCON farm communities; confirm the current calendar with the community.
- How to reach
- In the Grödinge area of Botkyrka Municipality, Stockholm County, Sweden; as a rural ISKCON countryside community, best reached by road, with visitors advised to contact the community in advance.
- Associated saints
- A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada
Location
Open in Google MapsKorsnäs Gård, formally known within the community as New Radhakunda, is a rural ISKCON (Hare Krishna) community and temple in the Grödinge area of Botkyrka Municipality, part of Stockholm County, Sweden, on a farmstead dating back to the 1600s whose current main building was constructed in 1901. Unlike most other ISKCON farm communities documented elsewhere in this directory, its distinguishing role is publishing rather than agriculture: Korsnäs Gård’s main function, per both its own site and Wikipedia’s overview of Hinduism in Sweden, is to house the Bhaktivedanta Book Trust (BBT) operation that translates Srila Prabhupada’s Hare Krishna books into languages used around the world, making it a significant institutional node for the movement’s literature distribution well beyond Sweden’s own borders. Both sources describe it as “Scandinavia’s only Radha-Krishna temple.”
The Swedish ISKCON movement’s own broader history traces back to 1973, when its founder, A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, visited Sweden in person — around the same period he was also establishing ISKCON’s presence in Switzerland, Italy, and elsewhere in Europe. Sources disagree on exactly when Korsnäs Gård itself became a temple: the community’s own site credits Prabhupada personally with its 1976 founding, while a Swedish Wikipedia article instead dates the movement’s temple there to 1980. The property is also of independent historical interest, having yielded significant Neolithic-era archaeological finds from the Pitted Ware culture (roughly 3300-2300 BCE), predating its religious use by millennia.
Sources
- historical record: Cross-checked against Wikipedia's 'Hinduism in Sweden' article: confirms Korsnäs Gård is a countryside ISKCON establishment with a Hare Krishna temple in Botkyrka Municipality, Stockholm County, whose main function is 'to work with the publishing company BBT (Bhaktivedanta Book Trust) who translates the Hare Krishna books to various languages for the entire world'; the same article notes that Srila Prabhupada visited Sweden in 1973, an early milestone in the movement's establishment in the country.
- historical record: Wave 2 follow-up: address and coordinates confirmed via the community's own current site, krishna.se (to which both iskcon.se and harekrishna.se redirect), which also gives the temple's formal name as 'New Radhakunda' and states it was founded in 1976 by A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada himself; both krishna.se and Swedish Wikipedia describe it as 'Scandinavia's only Radha-Krishna temple' in near-identical phrasing. Swedish Wikipedia's own 'Korsnäs gård' article instead states the Hare Krishna movement 'established one of their temples at this property' in 1980, a discrepancy with krishna.se's 1976 date that could not be reconciled this pass. The same Wikipedia article gives historical background on the property itself: a farmstead since the 1600s (known as 'Sofielund' in the early 1800s), with its current main building constructed in 1901, and notes significant Neolithic-era (Pitted Ware culture, c. 3300-2300 BCE) archaeological finds on the grounds. Coordinates cross-checked between Wikipedia's infobox (59.15472, 17.80389) and an independent OpenStreetMap node ('Korsnäs, Vårsta, Botkyrka kommun') at 59.1554787, 17.8034686, roughly 70 m apart - both point to the same property.
For review
- Sources disagree on the founding year: the community's own current site (krishna.se) states 1976, under Srila Prabhupada's personal direction, while Swedish Wikipedia's 'Korsnäs gård' article states the Hare Krishna movement established a temple on the property in 1980; this has not been reconciled and both figures are reported. The deity name 'Radha Krishna' used in this entry's front matter is consistent with the temple's own formal name, 'New Radhakunda.'