Page 60 - (DK Eyewitness) Travel Guide - Stockholm

58  ST OCKHOLM AREA B Y AREA

q Riddarholms ­
kyrkan
Birger Jarls Torg. Map 4 A3. Tel 08-402
61 30.  Gamla Stan. @ 3, 53. Open
15 May–13 Sep: 10am–5pm daily; 14
Sep–29 Nov: 10am–4pm Sat & Sun.
8 Eng: noon. Closed 30 Nov–14 May.
8 ^ 7 & ∑ kungahuset.se
This church on the island of
Riddarholmen is best known as a
place for royal burials. Its interior
is full of ornate sarcophagi and
worn grave stones, and in front
of the altar are the tombs of the
medieval kings Karl Knutsson Wrangelska Palatset, a royal residence after the Tre Kronor fire of 1697
and Magnus Ladulås.
Built on the site of the late sledge from his porphyry work- the King’s House, and it was here
13th-century Greyfriars abbey, shops in the Älvdalen region in in 1697 that the 15-year-old Karl
founded by Ladulås, the northern Sweden. XII took the oath of office after
majestic brick church was Particularly moving are the the death of his father. Three
gradually enlarged over the graves of royal children who years later the young king left his
centuries. After a serious fire met an early death, including palace to go to war; he would
in 1835, the church acquired the many small tin coffins that never return to Stock holm.
its present lattice-work, surround the last resting place Gustav III was born here, ten
cast-iron tower. of Gustav II Adolf and his queen, years before the Royal Family
The church is surrounded Maria Eleonora. moved back to the new Royal
by ornate burial vaults, which Palace in 1754.
date back as far as the 17th w Wrangelska The Court of Appeal now uses
century. The coffins rest on a the whole building, where in
lower level with space for a Palatset 1792 the assassin of Gustav III
memorial above. The most Birger Jarls Torg 16. Map 4 A3. was manacled in the dungeons
recent was built in 1858–60  Gamla Stan. @ 3, 53. Closed to during his trial.
for the Bernadotte dynasty. the public. The court also rents the
The vaults contain the remains Rosenhane Palace (Birger Jarls
of all the Swedish sovereigns Only two parts of the Torg 10) and the Hessenstein
from Gustav II Adolf in the 17th fortification work that Gustav House (Birger Jarls Torg 2),
century to the present day with Vasa undertook around 1530 which was built in 1630 by
two exceptions: Queen Kristina still remain – Birger Jarl’s Tower Bengt Bengtsson Oxenstierna.
was buried at St Peter’s in and the southernmost tower of It was named after Fredrik
Rome in 1689 and Gustav VI what became the Wrangel Wilhelm von Hessenstein,
Adolf, who died in 1973, was Palace. Built as a residence for the son of Fredrik I and his
interred at Haga (see pp124–5). the nobleman Lars Sparre in lover Hedvig Taube. Later it
The most magni ficent 1629, it was extensively was occupied by Carl Gustav
sarcophagus is that of the rebuilt only a few decades Tessin, son of the Royal Palace
19th-century king, Karl XIV later. The owner by then was architect and a leading cultural
Johan, which had to Carl Gustaf Wrangel, a field figure in his day.
be towed here by marshal during the Thirty
Years’ War, who chose
Jean de la Vallée as his
architect. The result was
Stockholm’s largest palace
in private hands.
In 1693 Wrangel lost
many valuable posses sions
in a major fire, and four
years later his palace
became a royal residence
when the Royal Family
moved to Riddarholmen
after the Tre Kronor
fortress was ravaged by
Riddarholmskyrkan with the external burial vault by another fire. The palace The city founder Birger Jarl’s statue on the
Tessin and Hårleman then became known as square that bears his name

058-059_EW_Stockholm.indd 58 19/09/17 12:01 pm
Eyewitness Travel LAYERS PRINTED:
Catalogue template “UK” LAYER
(Source v2)
Date 14th November 2012
Size 125mm x 217mm