Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Design & Architecture
While it can be hard to separate modern Swedish design from the success of
general Scandinavian design, it is the predominantly Swedish embrace of
modernity and craft that has fostered admiration around the world for dec-
ades.
Stuart Harrison
History
Along with a scattering of Romanesque and Gothic imports from mainland Europe,
Sweden's architecture has a classical sensibility, as seen in the grand streets of Stockholm.
The Renaissance was embraced at the peak of Sweden's power in the 16th and 17th centur-
ies, and set up the nation's core historic architecture.
Magnificently ornate baroque architecture arrived (mainly from Italy) during the 1640s,
while Queen Kristina held the throne. This is perhaps best seen in the buildings at Kalmar, a
historical centre of power and where the first union of Denmark, Norway and Sweden was
formed in 1397. Kalmar's Domkyrkan (Cathedral), designed in 1660, the adjacent Kalmar
Rådhus (Town Hall) and Drottningholms Slott (1662) were all designed by the court archi-
tect Nicodemus Tessin the Elder. Tessin the Younger designed the vast 'new' Kungliga Slot-
tet (Royal Palace) in Stockholm after the original palace was gutted by fire in 1697.
Pre-Renaissance examples include the Romanesque Domkyrkan in Lund, consecrated in
1145 and still dominating the city centre with its two imposing square towers. Fine Gothic
churches can be seen at the Mariakyrkan in Sigtuna (completed in 1237) and Uppsala's
Domkyrkan, consecrated in 1435. The island of Gotland, however, is your best bet in
Sweden for ecclesiastical Gothic architecture, with around 100 medieval churches scattered
across the ancient landscape.
Modernity was, as elsewhere, born in the 19th century out of urban and social upheaval,
the move to cities and industrialisation. From the harsh conditions of expanding Stockholm
and Göteborg (Gothenburg) a social state emerged, the basis for modern Sweden.
The movements were sequential but overlapping. The transitional National Romanticism
was an often decorative classical free-style with Arts and Crafts influences. Known locally
