Stockholm Palace

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The Stockholm Palace (Swedish: Stockholms slott) is the official residence and major royal palace of the Swedish monarch. (The private residence of the royal family is Drottningholm Palace). Stockholm Palace is located on Stadsholmen ("island of the city"), in the gamla stan (old town) of the capital, Stockholm. It neighbors the Riksdag, Sweden's parliament.

The personal offices of the monarch (currently Carl XVI Gustaf) and the other members of the Swedish royal family, as well as the administrative offices of the Royal Court of Sweden, are located there. The palace is also used for representative purposes by the king while performing his duties as the head of state. Image:Royal-Palace-Stockholm.jpg

1 History
2 The palace today
3 Interior
4 External link

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History

Image:Royal guards sweden.jpg The first building on this site was a fortress with a core tower built in the 13th century by Birger Jarl to defend Lake Mälaren. The fortress grew to a palace, named Tre Kronor ("Three Crowns") after the core towers' spire.

In the late 16th century, much work was done to transform the old fortress into a Renaissance-style palace under King John III. In 1690, it was decided to rebuild the palace in Baroque style. In 1692, work began on the northern row. It was complete in 1697, but much of the palace burned to the ground following a fire on on May 7, 1697 after a design by Nicodemus Tessin the Younger.

The palace was rebuilt, with half-round wings around the outer courtyard finished in 1734, the palace church finished in the 1740s, and the exterior finished in 1754. The royal family moved to the palace with the southwest, southeast, and northeast wings finished. The northwest wing was finished in 1760. In the north, the Lejonbacken ("Lion's Slope") was built from 1824 to 1830. Its name comes from the lion sculptures that stand there.

The palace is guarded by the Högvakten, a royal guard of members of the Swedish Armed Forces. The guard dates back to the early 16th century.

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The palace today

Image:Royal palace stockholm.ds.jpg The palace is built of brick, with midsections of the west, south, and east facades covered by sandstone. The roof slopes slightly inwards. The roof is covered with copper and is surrounded by a stone balustrade which stretched around the entire main building.

The palace has 609 rooms. The palace consists of four rows: western, southern, eastern, and northern. From west to east the palace facade is 115 m (without wings); from north to south the palace facade is 120 m. These four rows surround the inner courtyard.

From the main buildings' corners, four wings strech out to the northwest, northeast, southwest and southeast. All are 48 m long and 16 m wide except the southwest wing, which is only 11 m long.

This irregularity is hidden by two free-standing half-round wings that surround the outer courtyard. The Logården ("Lynx Yard") is a small garden lies between the southeast and northeast wing. The southern facade represents the nation, the west facade represents the king, the east facade represents the queen, and the northern facade represents the common royal.

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Interior

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The western row

Two stairs up lie the guest apartments. In this row also lie the Order Rooms.

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The eastern row

One stair down lies Livrustkammaren which contains old weapons and uniforms.

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The northern row

In the northern row lie the king's and queen's suites (which contains bedchambers, wardrobes and anterooms). In the northern row also lies the Feast apartment which contains the ball room Vita Havet (the White Sea). In the same row also lies Karl XI:s galleri (Charles XI's gallery). On the bottom floor lies the exhibition part of the palace. One stair down lies Museum Tre Kronor, consists of the old palace's cellar. One stair up lies Konseljrummet (the Council Room).

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The southern row

One stair up lies Rikssalen and the Palace Church. Rikssalen is at the west and the Palace Church is at the east. One stair down lies Skattkammaren (the Treasure Chamber) which contains the Swedish crown jewels.

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