Stockholm Palace: Tessin's Baroque Royal Palace in Gamla Stan

Stand on Skeppsbron in Gamla stan and look up. The Royal Palace fills the skyline in one long, sober wall of brown-red plaster and pale sandstone, more Roman city palace than fairy-tale castle.

That impression is deliberate. Stockholm Palace, known in Swedish as Kungliga slottet, was designed by Nicodemus Tessin the Younger after he had studied the great palazzi of Rome. It is still the official residence of the Swedish monarch and the setting for most state receptions.

The King and Queen actually live at Drottningholm, outside the city. But this is where the monarchy works, and much of the building is open to visitors year round. Here is how it came to be, how to read its façades, and what to see inside.

From Tre Kronor Castle to a New Royal Palace

There has been a royal stronghold on this spot since the 13th century. A fortress built under Birger Jarl to guard the entrance to Lake Mälaren grew into Tre Kronor Castle, named for the three crowns on its tower spire.

By the 1690s the old castle looked dated. Tessin the Younger was rebuilding it piece by piece, and in 1692 the new northern row went up in just five months, in a strict Baroque style that clashed with the Renaissance castle around it.

Then, on 7 May 1697, fire destroyed almost everything. Only the sturdy new northern walls survived well enough to be repaired. Tessin presented plans for a completely new palace within the same year, and he reused those surviving walls inside it.

A Roman Palace Built Through War

Tessin's model was the austere Roman Baroque he had seen in 1688, above all the Palazzo Farnese in Rome. The idea was a near-square block around a large inner courtyard, with lower wings reaching east and west.

Work moved fast until the Great Northern War drained the treasury. After Charles XII lost at Poltava in 1709, building stopped altogether. The half-built palace waited until 1727, when the Riksdag granted money to continue.

Tessin died in 1728. Carl Hårleman took over, kept Tessin's exterior, and gave many of the interiors a lighter Rococo character. King Adolf Frederick and Queen Louisa Ulrika finally moved in during 1754, though work on interiors and the surroundings ran on for years, and 1771 is usually treated as the year the palace was complete.

Four Façades, Four Messages

Each side of the palace was designed to say something different. The western façade, facing the Outer Courtyard, represents the King. Ten tall sandstone caryatids and medallions of earlier Swedish rulers decorate its centre.

The northern façade, facing the water and Norrbro, stands for power. It is the plainest side by design, with very little ornament beyond a bronze group above the Bernadotte Gallery balcony. Below it, on the ramp called Lejonbacken, sit two bronze lions cast in 1702 and 1704.

Their metal has a story of its own. The bronze came from a well taken as war booty from Kronborg Castle in Helsingør during Charles X Gustav's campaign in Denmark.

The southern façade represents the nation and is the most richly decorated. Its centre is shaped like a triumphal arch, with the Royal Chapel reached on one side and the Hall of State on the other, so sacred and worldly power meet at the same entrance.

The eastern side, facing the garden known as Logården, stands for the Queen. Here Tessin seems to have been thinking of a Roman villa, with colossal pilasters thought to be modelled on Bernini's Palazzo Chigi-Odescalchi.

Why the Colour Keeps Changing

The palace has not always been this shade. Tessin finished his walls in a brick-red plaster with white stone details. Before the royal family moved in, the whole building was painted yellow, the fashionable Rococo colour of the time.

In the 1820s the stone details were repainted pink on some sides and grey on others. Then in the 1890s Oscar II brought back Tessin's red, and the paint was stripped from the sandstone. That red has mellowed towards brown over the decades.

Removing the protective paint also exposed the soft Gotland sandstone to the weather. A long façade restoration began in 2011, working round the building in stages, so expect to see scaffolding or netting on part of it when you visit.

Inside the Royal Palace

The Royal Palaces organisation describes more than 600 rooms spread over eleven floors. Representation rooms face the city, while smaller living rooms look into the inner courtyard. Only part of the building is shown, but it is a generous part.

The State Apartments on the north side are the grand set piece. Charles XI's Gallery has served as the main banqueting hall since 1950 and hosts official dinners during state visits, while the White Sea ballroom is used as a drawing room on those evenings.

The Bernadotte Apartments, one floor down, are named after the gallery of portraits of Sweden's current royal house. Hårleman decorated these rooms in the 1730s and 1740s, and some have been returned to their 18th-century look.

Then there is the Hall of State, two storeys high, where Queen Christina's silver throne stands. Across the southern arch, the Royal Chapel was inaugurated with the rest of the palace in 1754 and still holds services, using benches and silver saved from the old castle chapel.

Museums Under the Palace

Some of the best things are below ground. The Treasury, opened in 1970, displays the Swedish regalia, including the crowns, sceptres and orbs used at royal ceremonies.

The Tre Kronor Museum occupies vaulted rooms that once served as kitchens of the medieval castle. These are the oldest rooms in the building, and the museum tells the story of the lost castle and the fire of 1697.

Gustav III's Museum of Antiquities opened to the public in 1794 and is one of the oldest museums in Sweden. It shows more than 200 classical sculptures the king bought on his Italian journey of 1783 to 1784.

The Royal Armoury, Livrustkammaren, is also in the palace cellars but runs as its own museum with a separate entrance from Slottsbacken. Founded by Gustavus Adolphus in 1628, it holds royal armour, costumes and carriages.

Planning a Visit: Tickets, Tours and the Guard

Tickets are sold through the Royal Palaces website, kungligaslotten.se, and at the palace itself. The main palace ticket covers several of the sights above, but check what is included before you buy, as some areas are ticketed separately.

Because this is a working palace, rooms can close at short notice for official events, and opening hours shift with the seasons. Look at the day's opening times before you set out rather than relying on a guidebook. The palace also offers guided tours, and the website lists current languages and times.

The changing of the guard takes place in the Outer Courtyard and draws large crowds, so arrive early for a spot near the front. The Royal Guards have protected the palace and the royal family since 1523.

Combining the Palace with Gamla Stan

The palace sits at the northern edge of Gamla stan, so it is easy to fold into a day in the old town. Storkyrkan, Stockholm's cathedral, stands right beside the southwest wing, and Riddarholmen Church, the royal burial church, is about five minutes' walk away.

For a modern counterpoint, cross the water to Stockholm City Hall, where Ragnar Östberg reinterpreted Swedish building traditions in brick in the early 20th century. Our Stockholm building guide lists more of the city's landmarks.

Seen together, the two show how Stockholm has used architecture to tell a national story. At the palace, that story is told in Tessin's language of Roman order, built slowly over more than seventy years and still in daily use.