Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
noon and 2pm other months). Guides are entertaining, and provide insight into the cultural
milieu that influenced some of the decorations.
The Lower North Corps de Garde was originally a guard room, but it's now replete with
gilt-leather wall hangings, which used to feature in many palace rooms during the 17th
century. The Karl X Gustav Gallery, in baroque style, depicts this monarch's militaristic
exploits, though the ceiling shows classical battle scenes. The highly ornamented State
Bedchamber of Hedvig Eleonora is Sweden's most expensive baroque interior, decorated
with paintings that feature the childhood of Karl XI. The painted ceiling shows Karl X and
his queen, Hedvig Eleonora.
Although the bulk of Lovisa Ulrika's collection of 2000 books has been moved to the
Royal Library in Stockholm for safekeeping, her library here is still a bright and impress-
ive room, complete with most of its original 18th-century fittings.
The palace's elaborate staircase, with statues and trompe l'oeil embellishments at every
turn, was the work of both Nicodemus Tessin the Elder and the Younger. The geometric
gardens, angled to impress, are well worth exploring.
Drottningholms Slottsteater & Teatermuseum MUSEUM
(Court Theatre & Museum; GOOGLE MAP ; www.dtm.se ; entry by tour adult/child Skr100/free;
tours hourly noon-3.30pm Fri-Sun Apr & Oct, 11am-4.30pm May-Aug, noon-3.30pm Sep)
Slottsteater was completed in 1766 on the instructions of Queen Lovisa Ulrika. Remark-
ably untouched from the time of Gustav III's death (1792) until 1922, it's now the oldest
theatre in the world still in its original state. The fascinating guided tour takes you into
other rooms in the building, where highlights include hand-painted 18th-century wallpaper
and an Italianate room ( salon de déjeuner ) with fake three-dimensional wall effects and a
ceiling that looks like the sky.
Performances are held at Drottningholms Slottsteater ( www.dtm.se ; tickets Skr300-995)
in summer using 18th-century machinery, including ropes, pulleys, wagons and wind ma-
chines. Scenes can be changed in less than seven seconds! Illusion was the order of the
day, and accordingly the theatre makes use of fake marble, fake curtains and papier mâché
viewing boxes. Even the stage was designed to create illusions regarding size.
Kina Slott
CASTLE
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