Riddarholmen Church, Stockholm, Sweden

The Riddarholmen Church (Riddarholmskyrkan) is the burial church of the Swedish monarchs. The congregation was dissolved in 1807 and today the church is used only for burial and commemorative purposes. Swedish monarchs from Gustavus Adolphus (d. 1632 AD) to Gustaf V (d. 1950) are entombed here (with exceptions such as Queen Christina who is buried within St. Peter's Basilica in Rome), as well as the earlier monarchs Magnus III (d. 1290) and Charles VIII (d. 1470).

Riddarholmen church is one of the oldest buildings in Stockholm, parts of it dating to the late 13th century, when it was built as a greyfriars monastery. After the Protestant Reformation, the monastery was closed and the building transformed into a Protestant church. A spire designed by Willem Boy was added during the reign of John III, but it was destroyed by a strike of lightning on July 28, 1835 after which it was replaced with the present cast iron spire.

Coats of arms of knights of the Order of the Seraphim are in the walls of the church. When a knight of the Order dies, his coat of arms is hung in the church and when the funeral takes place the church bells are rung constantly from 12:00 to 13:00.

References:

Wikipedia

User Reviews

Henry Baxter (6 months ago)
Very scenic square. Lovely at dusk in the winter time.

Mugen S. (6 months ago)
Very beautiful. But! The streets impact the view negatively and so does the nearby construction works. The best point of view is across two roads. from there you can see the two peaks align perfectly. very aesthetically pleasing. However, unfortunately it IS indeed across two roads... Mind the lot of tourists obviously. (And yes, I am a tourist myself, ironically)

Felipe Lima (6 months ago)
The Riddarholm Church is the burial church of the Swedish monarchs. It is located on the island of Riddarholmen, close to the Royal Palace in Stockholm, Sweden. The congregation was dissolved in 1807 and today the church is used only for burial and commemorative purposes.

Sean Fowler (8 months ago)
Super interesting if you have even a little bit of interest in Swedish history, or architecture. With parts of the structure dating back to the 1200s, just being near something that old was fascinating. Minus a star for the lack of guides; though the printed material was informative enough about the personages in the various chapels and crypts, I would have appreciated a spoken descriptive tour much more. Other reviews indicate they exist, but there were none today.

Erin Portman (9 months ago)
We stumbled upon this church while walking around. We only knew we wanted to go in not knowing we were stumbling into a mausoleum for royals. I'm still in awe by the building and history we experienced. From the architecture to the coat of arms, expect to be amazed. It was the best $5 we have spent so far.

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The central part of the castle is an old baroque palace which was partially destroyed by fire on the night of April 2, 1896 and was reconstructed in the same year in its original form by Franz Hubert von Tiele-Winckler. The reconstruction works involved an extension of the residence. The eastern Neogothic-styled wing of the building was built by 1900, along with an adjacent orangery. In 1912-1914, the western wing was built in the Neo-Renaissance style. The architectural form of the castle contains a wide variety of styles, thus it can be generally defined as eclectic.

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Apart from the castle itself, the entire complex includes a park which has no precise boundaries and includes nearby fields, meadows and a forest. Only the main axis of the park can be characterised as geometrical. Starting from the gate, it leads along the oak and then horse-chestnut avenues, towards the castle. Further on, the park passes into an avenue of lime trees with symmetrical canals running along both sides of the path, lined with a few varieties of rhododendrons. The axis of the park terminates at the base of a former monument of Hubert von Tiele-Winckler. On the eastern side of the avenue there is a pond with an islet referred to by the owners as Easter Island. The islet is planted with needle-leaved shrubs and can be reached by a Chinese-styled bridge. The garden, as part of the whole park complex was restored slightly earlier than the castle itself. Preserved documents of 1868 state that the improvement in the garden's aesthetic quality was undertaken by Hubert von Tiele-Winckler.

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