Page 54 - (DK Eyewitness) Travel Guide - Stockholm

52  ST OCKHOLM AREA B Y AREA

Exploring the Royal Palace

The public areas of the Royal Palace allow you to walk
through grand rooms of sumptuous furnishings and priceless
works of art and craftsmanship. The Hall of State and the
Royal Chapel are both characterized by their magnificent
lavish decor and Gustav III’s Museum of Antiquities contains
ancient marble sculptures from the king’s journey to Italy.
The palace also houses the Treasury with the State regalia;
the Tre Kronor Museum, which depicts the palace before
the 1697 fire; and the Livrustkammaren (see p54). The Pillar Hall in the Bernadotte
Apartments with original decor
drawing room.
Gustav III’s State The Bernadotte
Apartments
Bedchamber, where
the king died after This magnificent suite has
being shot at the earned its name from the
Opera House in 1792 gallery displaying portraits of
(see pp24–5), is the the Bernadotte dynasty. The
height of Gustavian apartments have some notable
elegance. Along ceiling paintings and mid-18th-
with Queen Sofia century chandeliers, and are
Magdalena’s State used for many a ceremonial
Bedchamber, it was occasion. The elegant Pillar Hall
designed by the is the venue for invest itures, and
architect Jean Eric the East Octagonal Cabinet,
Rehn. The lintels on with probably the palace’s best
the doors to the Don Rococo decor, is where the king
Karl XI’s Gallery, the finest example of the Late Baroque Quixote Room, named receives for eign ambassadors.
period in Sweden after the theme of Along with the western cabinet,
its tap estries, feature its interior has remained just as it
paintings by François Boucher was planned by Carl Hårleman
The State Apartments and are among the palace’s more than 250 years ago.
The royal family has lived at most treasured pieces. Oscar II’s very masculine
Drottningholm Palace (see Writing Room, dating from
pp146–49) since 1982, but The Guest Apartments the 1870s, also still looks much
official functions, including as it did in his day. However,
banquets hosted by the king An imposing part of the palace, it is clear the palace was kept
during visits by foreign heads of these apartments are where up to date with technical
state, still take place in the royal visiting heads of state stay. The advances. Electricity was
palace’s State Apartments. beautiful rooms include the installed in 1883, and the
Other official dinners are staged Meleager Salon, where official telephone only one year later.
here, as well as the fes tivities gifts and decorations are ex-
held every year to honour the changed, and a large bedroom The Hall of State
Nobel laureates. with a sculp ted and gilded
Banquets are served bed. Other impressive Rococo and Classicism were
in Karl XI’s Gallery, the rooms are the Inner Salon, brought together in perfect
finest example of Swedish with decor inspired by the harmony by the architects
Late Baroque, modelled on excavations in Pompeii, and Nicodemus Tessin the Younger
the Hall of Mirrors at the Margareta Room, named and Carl Hårleman, when they
Versailles. Each window after the present king’s designed the two-storey Hall of
is matched with a grandmother and State. It provides a worthy
niche on the inner displaying some framework for Queen Kristina’s
wall, where some of the King Karl XIV pictures painted by her. silver throne, a gift for the
palace’s priceless works Johan’s egg cup The apartments coronation in 1650 and one of
of arts and crafts are contain remarkable the most valuable treasures in
exhibited. Most remarkable is works of crafts manship by such the palace. The throne was given
the salt-cellar made from ivory 18th-century masters as the to the Queen by Magnus Gabriel
and gilded silver designed by cabinet-maker Georg Haupt de la Gardie and was made in
the Flemish painter Rubens (see p84), chair-maker Ephraim Augsburg, Germany, by the
(1577–1640). The room known Ståhle and the sculptor Jean goldsmith Abraham Drentwett.
as “The White Sea” serves as a Baptiste Masreliez. The canopy was added 100

052-053_EW_Stockholm.indd 52 19/09/17 12:01 pm
Eyewitness Travel LAYERS PRINTED:
Flashmap follow-on template “UK” LAYER
(Source v1.4)
Date 5th November 2012
Size 125mm x 217mm