The Royal Palace

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Today we had breakfast in our hostel. It was a nice relaxing morning before heading off to the Royal Palace. We made it there for the changing of the guards. I much prefered this changing of the guard to the one in London. There were actually two sets of guards, wearing different uniforms that actually swapped places. Also having less people there meant that we got a better view this time! We went into the Royal Palace, which is the official residence of His Majesty the King of Sweden. We went on a guided tour of the Royal Apartments. It was a facinating tour. The Castle originally looked quite different. It started as a single tower and then a castle grew up around it. In 1697 they were going to renew the palace and they started by renovating the North Wing. Unfortunatley in May there was a large fire and that combined with a dtrong wind led to most of the original castle being destroyed, they managed to save the newly renovated North Wing though. After that Nicodemus Tessin the Younger, the architect, completed the Palace in the style of the Italian Baroque. Because they were originally building over the old palace they were limited as to how wide the wings could be, as a result the North Wing is smaller than the rest.

After the Royal Apartments we saw the Royal Chapel, Tre Kroner Museum, and The Treasury. The Treasury was small but it housed the Swedish monarchy's state regalia, crowns, septres, orbs ect. The Royal Chapel was exactly as it sounds. The Tre Kroner (Three Crown) museum was full of bits and bobs, items saved from the fire, discovered during excavations when building. The items were not very interesting but it was down in the basement of the castle and it was really interesting to see the large arches and stone walls that held areas for storage.

We spent the rest of the afternoon wandering around Gammla Stan and hit the grocery store on the way back to the hostel. We dropped off our food and then headed to St. Eugenia for church. After and interesting Catholic church service which was in English although much of the singing (although it was more like chanting) was done in latin.

We came back to the hostel afterwards and made dinner. We are planning on going to another Royal Palace tomorrow, Drottningholm. We have to take a boat there and it is about 2 hours away! It will be interesting to see how it compares to the palace inside the city.

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Photos

Royal Guard 1
I think they were practicing but the would start walking out and then charge!

Royal Guard 2
The Marching Band.

Royal Guard 3
The new guards marching in.

Royal Guard 4
The original guards on the left and the new guards on the right.

Royal Guard 5
They have swapped placed and the changing of the guard is complete.

Old Palace
A model of what the palace looked like prior to 1697.

New Palace
The palace as it looks now.

The Council Chamber
This is where council meets 3 or 4 times a year. All of the books on the table are there different laws because they don't have a constitution.

Gustav III
Gustav III's ceiling. It was a painting done to represent his education. It is hard to see but on the left is Hercules and he is beating out the vices. There are then statues in the corners of the room.

Versailles
This room was built in the same style as the hall of mirrors in versailles. Nicodemus Tessin the Younger went over to France and bribed the workmen there to come to Sweden to build it!

Royal Crown
They had some very lovely blue crowns in the treasury.

Canada Geese
No...they are Swedish Geese!