Today's post is about The Royal Palace in Stockholm. It is ''the largest palace ever built in the world still used for its original built purpose,'' and it is HUGE. It has 1430 rooms, 660 of which have windows, spread over 7 floors, and about 64 staircases, of these about 45 rooms are open to the public. The complex includes, the state apartments, the Bernadotte floor, the chivalry apartments, the offices of the Royal Family, and of the Royal Court, apartments for visiting heads of state, and of course the private rooms the Royal family uses as lodgings. In addition to these, it has a garden (small by royal standards if compared to that of Drottningholm or Tullgarn, but much larger than home gardens), a ballroom, 2 throne rooms, a hall of mirrors, a 'chapel' (imo when a place of worship can seat 800 people its a church not a chapel),several balconies, an outer and an inner court yard, AND(yes there's more), it houses 4 museums which I shall be discussing in future posts, these are The Royal Armoury, The Royal Treasury, Gustav III's museum of antiquity, and The Tre Kronor museum.
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| The North Facade of the Royal Palace, the two side wings are not shown in this photo. |
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The Royal Palace is the official residence of the Swedish Monarch, but since 1983 TM King Carl XVI Gustaf and Queen Silvia have lived at Drottningholm Palace since at the time it was more appropriate due to its extensive gardens since they were raising 3 children. The logarden is not enclosed with walls and the children with not have been able to play without people looking at them. In the King's book 'Min 40 ar for Sverige,' the King said that they were considering Tullgarn Palace too. It neighbors Storkyran, the Cathedral one of the churches the royal family uses frequently such as for the service before the annual opening of parliament, te deums (depending on how big and special the occasion is), wedding and in the past, coronations. The palace is utilised for all representative functions, such as state dinners and visits, the celebrations marking the kings birthday, and the crown princess name day, or meetings with representatives of various charities. However, not all state visits occur her, some times they are held at Gripsholm Castle or Drottningholm Palace, but this is rarely done.
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| An aerial view of the palace complex. |
Construction on the palace started in 1697, and was completed in1760, 63 years later on the site of an older palace the Tre Kronor Castle which was built in the 13th century and destroyed in a fire. Some parts of the old castle still exist under the present palace and one can see them when visiting the Tre Kronor museum.
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| The Tre Kronor Castle. |
In 1690 King John III decided to built a baroque palace on the site of the old castle. The present palace was designed by the architect Nicodemus Tessin the Younger. Works on the new palace began in 1692, but they were destroyed by another fire in 1697, construction began again in 1697 and was finally completed in 1760. The Lejonbacken (lion's slope) was rebuilt in the 1800's, and named after the lions on the slopes.The king's guard of honour guards the palace has guarded the royal family since 1523 and is one of the oldest royal guard in the world. The changing of the royal guard takes place daily at noon in the outer courtyard of the palace.
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| An earl painting of the 'new' palace. |
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The palace has four facades. The southern one symbolises the nation:
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| The south facade |
The western facade represents the King. It is also used as the ceremonial entrance to the palace on extremely special occasions after a cortege on horse and carriage around the city and a ride on the royal barge Vasaorden such as the Royal Wedding of Victoria and Daniel in 2010, or during the State visit of the Emperor or Empress of Japan in the early 2000's
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| The West Facade. |
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| The crown princess couple entering the palace from the West facade. |
The east facade represents the Queen:
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| The east facade. |
The north facade represents the common royal, please see the first picture for a picture of this facade.
The interiors of the palace are magnificent, the walls are covered with frescoes, gold and damask. The monarchs throne is made from solid silver and was a gift from Queen Christina.
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| The Queen Victoria room(Queen of Sweden, nee princess of Baden). |
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| Karl XI's gallery,seats 200 people and is used for state dinners. |
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| The ballroom or white sea hall, it is some times used as a dining room if many guests are invited |
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| The Council Room where the king holds cabinet meetings. |
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| The throne room with the silver throne aka the hall of state. |
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| Queen Lovisa Ulrika's throne room |
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| The Pillar hall |
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| One of the many staircases |
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| another staircase |
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| The Royal Chapel. |
The royal palace held the reception for the Royal Wedding in the 2010, and last summer Princess Madeleine, The Duchess of Halsingland and Gastrikland, and Mr.Chris O'Neill were married in the royal chapel, which was also the venue for Princess Estelle, The Duchess of Ostergotland's christening in May 2012.
