In a country that champions gender equality, a "feudal remnant" of inheritance law stands out. Under the concept of "fideicommissum", aristocratic families can bequeath their entire estate to the first-born, usually the son. A member of the Swedish nobility, Carl Johan Cronstedt, 75, is the tenth generation to inherit Sweden's "most beautiful wooden castle", a "fideikommiss". Acknowledging that the form of inheritance was ageing into obsolescence, the Swedish social-democratic government of 1963 pushed through a law to dismantle the few hundred remaining fideicommissums in the country, but left in the possibility that fideicommissums could be extended by the government if petitioned by a family. In 1995, Fullero was granted its first extension, after the family argued that the estate would become fragmented if it were to be passed on to several heirs, thereby risking its historical value. Cronstedt now wants to have the exception extended indefinitely. IMAGES AND SOUNDBITES