Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Västerlånggatan is the area's nerve centre, a bustling thoroughfare lined with galleries,
eateries and souvenir shops. Step off the main drag and into the tinier alleyways for a sur-
prisingly quiet chance to explore.
Kungliga Slottet
PALACE
(Royal Palace;
MAP
08-402 61 30;
www.kungahuset.se
;
Slottsbacken; adult/child
Skr150/75, valid for 7 days;
10am-5pm mid-May-mid-Sep, closed Mon rest of year;
43, 46, 55,
59 Slottsbacken, Gamla Stan)
Kungliga Slottet was built on the ruins of Tre Kronor castle, which burned down in 1697.
The north wing survived and was incorporated into the new building. Designed by court
architect Nicodemus Tessin the Younger, it took 57 years to complete. Free 45-minute
tours in English start at 11am and 2pm mid-May to mid-September, and at 2pm and 3pm
the rest of the year. The apartments are occasionally closed for royal business; closures are
noted on the website.
With 608 rooms, this is the world's largest royal castle still used for its original purpose.
The first royal family moved here in 1754. Guided tours emphasise that the palace is not a
museum, with rooms preserved in amber, but rather a working government building. It
contains fine examples of baroque and rococo furnishings and interiors, each room also
bears the fingerprints of the many generations who have lived there.
Highlights include the decadent Karl XI Gallery, inspired by Versailles' Hall of Mirrors
and considered the finest example of Swedish late baroque. And don't miss Queen
Kristina's silver throne in the Hall of State, one of the few items rescued from the Tre Kro-
nor fire.
Admission to the palace also includes the
Museum Tre Kronor
, devoted to Stock-
holm's original castle; the
Royal Treasury
; and
Gustav III's Antikmuseum
(the museum
of antiquities).
In the basement of Museum Tre Kronor, you can see the foundations of 13th-century de-
fensive walls and items rescued from the medieval castle during the 1697 fire. The mu-
seum also describes how the fire started (a fire watcher was off flirting with a kitchen
maid, it seems) and explains rather vividly the meaning of 'run the gauntlet' (which in
1697 was how the court punished watchmen for flirting with kitchen maids while fire des-
troys a castle).
