Most beautiful palaces in Sweden
Sweden became an ruling empire of Baltic Sea in the 17th century. As a result Sweden has many beautiful palaces built in the late Renaissance and Baroque style. Here are some gems built by the nobility of Swedish Empire.
1. Royal Palace
The Stockholm Palace (Kungliga Slottet) is the official residence and major royal palace of the Swedish monarch. The offices of the monarch and the other members of the Swedish Royal Family as well as the offices of the Royal Court of Sweden are located there. The palace is used for representative purposes by the King whilst performing his duties as the head of state.
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' s ...
2. Drottningholm Palace
The Drottningholm Palace is the private residence of the Swedish royal family. It was originally built in the late 16th century. It served as a residence of the Swedish royal court for most of the 18th century. Apart from being the private residence of the Swedish royal family, the palace is a popular tourist attraction. It is also a UNESCO World Heritage Site, mainly because of its Theatre (an opera house located at the palace) and the Chinese Pavilion.
The palace was originally a renaissance building designed by Willem Boy, a stone palace built by John III of Sweden in 1580 for his queen, C ...
3. Gustav III's Pavilion
Photo from Flickr, copyright Cesar da Silva
Gustav III's Pavilion is a royal pavilion at the Haga Park. As a highlight in Swedish art history, the Pavilion is a fine example of the European neoclassicism of the late 18th century in Northern Europe. The pavilion was built in 1787 by the architect Olof Tempelman with detailed instructions from King Gustav III who was highly personally involved in the project, producing some basic designs himself and suggesting changes once the work was under way. Gustav III made use of the pavilion for a few years before his assassination (1792). After the death of him, Duke Charles used the pavilion as h ...
4. Tyresö Palace
The construction of the Tyresö palace began in the 1620s by the Riksdrots Gabriel Oxenstierna and completed in 1636. He also constructed the nearby Tyresö Church, which was inaugurated with his own burial in 1641.
The palace was inherited by Maria Sofia De la Gardie in 1648, who had married Gustaf Gabrielsson Oxenstierna, nephew of Swedish Regent and Lord High Chancellor Axel Oxenstierna. Both her and her husband's family were extremely wealthy. Maria Sofia resided in Tyresö Palace, from where she managed her estates around Baltic Sea.
During 1770s the palace was modernized an ...
5. Skokloster Castle
Skokloster Castle was built in the Baroque style between 1654 and 1676 by the wealthy military commander and count Carl Gustaf Wrangel. The castle was designed by architect Nicodemus Tessin the Elder. When Wrangel died, the castle passed into the hands of the Brahe family, and then, after 1930, became the property of the von Essens. In 1967 the castle and its contents were sold by the family to the Swedish government; since then it has been open as a museum.
The castle is a monument to the Swedish Age of Greatness, a period in the middle of the seventeenth century when Sweden expanded to beca ...
6. Rosersberg Palace
Photo from Flickr, copyright nilslennart
Rosersberg Palace is one of the Royal Palaces of Sweden. It was built in the 1630s by the Oxenstierna family and became a royal palace in 1762, when the state gave it to Duke Karl (later Karl XIII), the younger brother of Gustav III of Sweden.
Gabriel Bengtsson Oxenstierna named the palace after his mother who came from the prestigious Tre Rosor ("Three Roses") family. Construction of the building in the typical Renaissance style of the time started in 1634 and was completed in 1638. In late 17th century, the Renaissance style was out of fashion and Oxenstierna's son, Bengt Oxenstierna, had i ...
7. Ulriksdal Palace
Photo from Flickr, copyright Håkan Dahlström
Ulriksdal Palace is a royal palace situated on the banks of the Edsviken in the National City Park. It was originally called Jakobsdal after its owner Jacob De la Gardie, who had it built by architect Hans Jacob Kristler in 1643-1645 as a country retreat. He later passed on to his son, Magnus Gabriel De la Gardie, from whom it was purchased in 1669 by Queen Hedvig Eleonora. The present design is mainly the work of architect Nicodemus Tessin the Elder and dates from the late 17th century.
Hedvig Eleonora renamed the palace in 1684 Ulriksdal after its intended future owner, her grandson Prince ...
8. Rosendal Palace
Rosendal Palace (Rosendals slott) is a Swedish royal pavilion located at the Djurgården, an island in central Stockholm. It was built between 1823 and 1827 for King Karl XIV Johan, the first Bernadotte King of Sweden. It was intended as an escape from the formalities of court life at the Royal Palace.
Rosendal Palace was largely designed by Fredrik Blom, one of the leading architects of the time, who received a royal commission to draw and build the palace building after the original buildings burned down. Fredrik August Lidströmer, Stockholm"s City Architect from 1818 to 1824 ...
9. Tullgarn Palace
Photo from Flickr, copyright David Thyberg
Tullgarn Palace is a royal summer palace built in the 1720s. The palace offers a mixture of rococo, Gustavian and Victorian styles. The interior design is regarded as one of Sweden"s finest.
In 1719, the old Renaissance castle from the late 16th century was demolished. The newly appointed Privy Councillor Magnus Julius De la Gardie commissioned architect Joseph Gabriel Destain to design the present palace, built in the 1720s. The courtyard is open to the sea and took on its present appearance in the 1820s. It is modelled on the garden of Logården at the Royal Palace in Stockholm.
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10. Strömsholm Palace
Photo from Flickr, copyright StarlightHope
Strömsholm Palace, sometimes called Strömsholm Castle is a Swedish royal palace. The baroque palace is built on the site of a fortress from the 1550s, located on an island in the Kolbäcksån river at the west end of Lake Mälaren. The palace has interiors from the 18th century and an important collection of Swedish paintings.
King Gustav Vasa had a fortress built at Strömsholm in the 1550s. This later provided the foundation for the present Strömsholm Palace, built in 1669-1674 for Queen Hedvig Eleonora to a design by Nicodemus Tessin the Elder. The palace co ...
11. Ekenäs Castle
Photo from Flickr, copyright Johan Kleventoft
The present Ekenäs castle was built in the 17th century on top of the foundations of a medieval fortress from the 14th century. Ekenäs is one of the best preserved renaissance castles in Sweden with its three impressive shingled towers. Its military character is clearly shown by the surrounding moat and its situation on a cliff on the shore of a lake which has since been drained. One of the first owners of the property was Svante Sture, who lived during the reign of King Erik XIV. Sture built the first stonehouse built on this rock in 1562. Baron Peder Banér, councellor of the King, owned E ...
12. Örbyhus Castle
Photo from Flickr, copyright erik boralv
Örbyhus estate existed already in the 14th century, but the first castle was built by John Kristiernsson (Vasa) around then year 1450. It was a strong fortification with tower. Örbyhus remained in a possession of royal Vasa family until the end of 16th century. Gustav Vasa, who acquired Örbyhus through an exchange with his cousins in 1548, constructed the national fortress in the middle of Uppland complete with ramparts, moats and 54-foot-high stone walls around his grandfather’s stronghold tower. In Gustav Vasa’s castle there are many hidden passages and casemates with space for a garr ...