12/31/2016 0 Comments The Stockholm royal palacefor The north façade of the Royal Palace as designed by Nicodemus Tessin the Younger. Engraving made by Sébastien Le Clerc in Paris in 1695 for King Carl XI of Sweden. There were 800 copies printed and distributed in Europe as the King was keen to let people how his palace had changed. Even Louis XIV expressed his liking for the design London January 1st, 2017 I thought I would begin writing about the Royal Palace in Stockholm in my first blog as this was the building that began my serious interest in architecture, historic interiors and antiques. I was fifteen years old and the square shape and form of the palace appealed to me so much that I built a model of it. This proved a massive challenge as I had not yet been to Stockholm, nor had I ever seen the Royal Palace. I had only seen pictures of it as I lived in the far north of Sweden, about 1,000 kilometres away from Stockholm. I had always wanted to be an architect myself and build magnificent buildings; however this was not a realistic dream at all. I would not have been happy building modern standardised apartment blocks, offices or other mundane buildings which the majority of architects have to do today. I ended up being an antique dealer instead, which I have enjoyed immensely over the years. The Stockholm Royal Palace was built by Sweden’s greatest architect Nicodemus Tessin the Younger (1654-1728). He had been commissioned in the 1680’s to modernise the medieval Tre Kronor Castle for the parsimonious King Carl XI. Tessin had preferred to demolish the old dilapidated irregular castle and create something new and modern; however the king would not hear of it. The king died in 1697 after the north range of the palace had been rebuilt in Italian style inspired from Palazzo Farnese in Rome. Not long after, a disastrous fire broke out that destroyed the whole castle except for the northern range that Tessin had just had completed. There have been speculations that Tessin was behind this rather convenient event. Now he did have free hands and very soon produced a complete set of drawings for a new grand palace in the Roman Baroque style that had been approved by the fifteen year-old Carl XII and the Royal Council. It took the form of a quadrangle from which pairs of low wings extend east towards the water, where they frame a garden, and west towards the town, where they form an outer courtyard. Tessin believed he could build this palace with over 600 rooms in six to seven years. Work progressed well from the start, but was hindered by the many wars during the reign of Carl XII and completely stopped in 1709. When work resumed in 1727 the king was dead and Sweden was no longer rich and powerful. Worked progressed slowly and Tessin, who died in 1728, never saw it finished. His successor as architect and Royal Superintendent Carl Hårleman faithfully carried out Tessin’s plans for the façades and the layout of the rooms. The interiors were gradually decorated in the latest French Rococo style during the 1730’s and 1740’s and eventually, in 1754, King Adolph Fredric and Queen Lovisa Ulrica were able to move in, but work with the interiors continued for several years to come. During that time and later, the royal denizens of the palace as they changed status moved from apartment to apartment and floor to floor, calling for new decorative schemes wherever they went as the fashion changed. In 1754 the royal apartments were on the first floor of the north range. The King’s to the west, and the Queen’s, to the. The suite of staterooms faced north, and the private rooms faced south, overlooking the inner courtyard. The King and Queen’s staterooms were joined by a long central gallery. The largest and most important interiors, the Royal Chapel and the Hall of State (Rikssalen), were in the south range. There was an apartment on the first floor of the east range for the eight year-old Crown Prince, the future Gustaf III, as well as one for the younger son Prince Carl on the second floor. The youngest son Prince Fredric Adolph had an apartment on the second floor in the west range, above that of the Royal Council. Princess Sophia Albertina was given a suite of rooms above her parents on the second floor in the north range. She had to move out in 1766 when Crown Prince Gustaf married the Danish Princess Sophia Albertina and the newlyweds were given her apartment. Later in the eighteenth century, the Royal Library and the Royal Museum were created in the east wing. An aerial view of the palace. The west wing (top right) is shorter as the Stockholm Cathedral next door prevented it being built any longer The west façade with the outer courtyard where the changing of the guards take place every day. The State Guest Apartment is on the top floor Two curving free-standing buildings, this one for the Royal Guard, form the outer courtyard. Tessin drew inspiration for these buildings from the Teatro delle Acque (Water Theatre) in the garden at Villa Aldobrandini in Frascati outside Rome Each of the palace sides are different. The south façades was designed by Tessin as a triumphal arch commemorating King Carl XII’s victorious battles fought in the early eighteenth century. Behind are the Hall of State to the left and the Royal Chapel to the right with the South Portico in the centre
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Håkan Groth I am a Swedish antique dealer based in London, photographer and writer, and author of Neoclasscism in the North. ArchivesCategories |