Uppsala Cathedral: Sweden’s Archbishopric and Coronation Church
Site at a Glance
- Rating
- 4.7
- Popularity
- Medium
- Country
- Sweden
- Primary era
- Medieval
- External website
- Open
- Eras represented
- Medieval, Early Modern, Modern
- Civilizations
- Swedish
- Site type
- Religious
- Remains
- Cathedral
On this page18 sections
History
Uppsala Cathedral is a French High Gothic cathedral in Sweden, located in central Uppsala beside the Fyris River. Built for the medieval Swedish archbishopric, it became the seat of the Archbishop of Uppsala and the primate, or senior bishop, of the Church of Sweden. Before the Reformation, the sixteenth-century movement that moved Sweden from Roman Catholicism to Lutheran Christianity, it belonged to the Roman Catholic Church. The cathedral remains an active Evangelical-Lutheran church, a national shrine, and a place associated with royal coronations, Saint Eric, and the burial of Swedish monarchs and prominent religious, scholarly, and political figures.
From Gamla Uppsala to Östra Aros
At the end of the Viking Age, a Christian church replaced the pagan temple at Gamla Uppsala, about 5 kilometres north of the modern city. The date of that church is unknown. Siward was ordained Bishop of Uppsala in 1123, although it is uncertain whether he ever took office. The episcopal catalogue names Severeinus as the first bishop, possibly as Siward’s successor. Henrik, later known as Finland’s Apostle, was the fourth bishop.
Sweden became an archbishopric in 1164 under the authority of Lund. Its first archbishop was Stefan of Alvastra, a Cistercian monk. The cathedral at Gamla Uppsala was badly damaged by fire in 1204, after which its chapter sought permission to move to a larger site. Pope Alexander IV approved the transfer in 1258, on condition that the name Uppsala be retained.
In September 1270, Archbishop Fulco Angelus and the cathedral chapter selected Östra Aros at Söderköping. Formal authorization followed in 1271 from Carolus, Bishop of Västerås and the papal overseer of the case. Construction began about 1272 near the Fyris River, and the archbishopric, together with the relics of Saint Eric, moved from Gamla Uppsala in 1273. Östra Aros adopted the name Uppsala, preserving the identity of the older ecclesiastical centre.
The new cathedral stood on the site of an earlier stone church dedicated to the Holy Trinity. Saint Eric, the twelfth-century Swedish king later venerated as the country’s national patron saint, had attended Mass there before his murder in 1160. The transfer therefore joined the new cathedral to both the developing archbishopric and the cult of the royal saint.
Medieval construction and consecration
French architects designed the cathedral, although the author of the detailed initial plans is unknown. That designer supervised the work until 1281. A promissory note from 1287 records the travel expenses of Étienne de Bonneuil and his assistants on their journey to Sweden. Étienne is associated with the east and south chancel chapels, the transepts, and probably the south portal, while continuing the earlier design.
Construction proceeded slowly because of the cold climate, plague, and financial difficulties. The initial design was not completed until the end of the fourteenth century. Nikolaus of Västerås made an important contribution and began work on the nave. The eastern end and the chapels around the chancel were built approximately between 1270 and 1420. The western end of the nave was completed in the middle of the fifteenth century, while the towers required further work.
Archbishop Olaus Laurentii consecrated the still-incomplete cathedral on 7 June 1435. It was dedicated to Saint Lawrence, Saint Eric, and Saint Olaf, the medieval patron saint of Norway. Completion continued during the following decades, and the towers were built between 1470 and 1489. The vaults followed the original thirteenth-century plan, although some were erected as late as about 1440.
Reformation, monarchy, and fire
Before the Reformation, the cathedral primarily served the official worship of the Catholic hierarchy rather than acting as the ordinary parish church for laypeople. Uppsala’s parish churches included the Holy Trinity Church, Saint Peter’s Church, the Church of Our Lady, and a Franciscan friary. The last three stood east of the Fyris River and were successively demolished during the Reformation.
Uppsala Cathedral served as the coronation church of Swedish kings and queens from the Middle Ages until 1719. It remained connected with coronation celebrations until the end of the seventeenth century, after which Stockholm Cathedral, Storkyrkan, became the official coronation church. The later Lutheran identity of Uppsala Cathedral is also reflected in the burial of Laurentius Petri, Sweden’s first Lutheran archbishop.
Several fires damaged the cathedral. A fire in 1572 led to additions and alterations directed by Franciscus Pahr. The great fire of 1702 was the most destructive, devastating much of Uppsala and requiring restoration that continued until the middle of the eighteenth century. The fire also shaped the cathedral’s later appearance, including changes to its towers, roof, and interior furnishings.
During the seventeenth century, the towers were redesigned in the Dutch Renaissance style. After the 1702 fire they temporarily carried low wooden tops, the original flying buttresses, external arched supports that transfer the pressure of vaults to the ground, were removed, and a higher roof was constructed. Copper-faced spires designed by Carl Hårleman were installed in 1740, and he also substantially altered the west façade. The ornate pulpit, designed by Nicodemus Tessin and carved by Burchard Precht, was made in 1710 and given by Queen Hedvig Eleonora after the fire.
Burials, relics, and memorial associations
The cathedral’s chapels gradually became royal and aristocratic burial spaces. Gustav Vasa, the sixteenth-century founder of the Vasa dynasty and King of Sweden, was buried with his three wives in the former Chapel of the Virgin Mary. His son John III and John’s second wife, Gunilla Bielke, were also buried there. John’s first wife, Catherine Jagiellon of Poland, was buried in a separate chapel, while Gustav Vasa’s daughter Princess Elizabeth was buried in the Finsta Chapel.
The Sture Chapel commemorates Svante Sture and his sons Nils and Erik, who were killed by King Eric XIV in 1567. Their clothing from the time of their deaths is displayed in the Treasury Museum. Other people buried or memorialized in the cathedral include Olaus Rudbeck, the scientist and polymath; Emanuel Swedenborg, whose remains were transferred from England to Uppsala in 1908; Nathan Söderblom, Archbishop of Uppsala and recipient of the 1930 Nobel Peace Prize; Folke Johansson Ängel, Archbishop of Uppsala from 1267 to 1277; and Carl Linnaeus, the eighteenth-century botanist and Uppsala University professor.
Linnaeus has a memorial designed by Tobias Sergel beside the Chapel of Remembrance. A separate memorial to Dag Hammarskjöld, former Secretary-General of the United Nations and a posthumous Nobel Peace Prize recipient, consists of a stone inscribed with the words “Not I, but God in me,” followed by his name and the dates 1905–1961.
Relics of Saint Eric are kept in the cathedral. Relics of Saint Bridget, or Birgitta of Sweden, the fourteenth-century religious visionary associated with the Bridgettine Order, were donated by the Saint Bridget Order in 1990. In 1989, Pope John Paul II took part in an ecumenical service at the cathedral with Archbishop Bertil Werkström.
Restoration and continuing use
Helgo Zettervall directed a comprehensive restoration from 1885 to 1893. He sought to give the cathedral a French High Gothic appearance, altering substantial portions of the medieval brick exterior, removing decorative blind windows from the gables, adding pointed spires, and raising the building to a height of 118.7 metres. The work was later criticized for failing to respect the cathedral’s original Baltic Gothic character.
Renovation in the early 1970s improved the structure and included work on the walls and windows. Medieval frescoes that had been whitewashed after the Reformation were uncovered and restored. Decades later, large sections of Zettervall’s exterior cement additions were removed because they adversely affected the building fabric. Fire-protection equipment was installed in 2010, and the electrical and heating systems were replaced.
Between 2019 and 2021, the twin spire crowns and crosses were restored. The structures, installed in 1889, were about 10 metres high and 3.5 metres wide, and each weighed approximately 4.2 tonnes. Corrosion and cracking led to their removal and structural analysis. They were then recast in ductile iron to reproduce their historical appearance with improved resistance to moisture and rust. Reinstallation began in May 2021, the original crosses returned later that summer, and the project was completed in autumn 2021.
Remains
Uppsala Cathedral is a red-brick French High Gothic building with a Latin-cross plan. It stands on a stone foundation built high on a gravel ridge southwest of the Fyris River. The cathedral measures 118.7 metres in length and height, is 45 metres wide, and has an internal height of 27 metres. Its scale makes it the tallest church in the Nordic countries and Scandinavia.
Plan and medieval fabric
The interior is arranged as a three-aisled basilica, with a central nave and two lateral aisles. Single-aisle transepts form the cross-arms, while the four-bay chancel has an ambulatory, a passage around the chancel, surrounded by five chapels. The seven-bay nave is bordered on both sides by chantry chapels, spaces associated with prayers or commemorative services for the dead.
Red brick is the principal building material. The chancel pillars, north transept portal, north portal rose window, and many architectural details use Gotland limestone. Brick that could be produced locally required thicker walls than a comparable stone building. The nave pillars were originally brick and were replaced with limestone during Zettervall’s restoration.
The chancel and transepts retain a strongly French character, while the later nave combines German and Swedish features. Nikolaus of Västerås introduced side chapels and some German-influenced details, but the builders used cross-vaults rather than the star-shaped vaults common in the period. The rose window above the northeast portal, constructed about 1330, retains its French character. Work on the west end began in 1431 with a west portal influenced by Vadstena Abbey, while the towers preserve features associated with thirteenth-century French architecture.
Towers, crossing, and principal furnishings
West towers and spires
The west twin towers were first mentioned in 1563. After the 1572 fire, Franciscus Pahr added a cupola and pinnacles, while Antonius Watz designed the first spires. Later seventeenth-century work gave the towers a Dutch Renaissance character. Hårleman’s copper-faced spires were installed in 1740, and Zettervall rebuilt the towers in the 1880s, increasing their height. The restored spire crowns and crosses were returned to the towers in 2021.
Coronation Vault and high altar
The Coronation Vault rises 27 metres above the crossing of the transept and nave. Its ceiling and walls received Neo-Gothic decoration during the nineteenth-century restoration, including figures beyond the medieval heritage such as Martin Luther. The high altar is used for principal services on major feast days and is the place where Swedish bishops are ordained. A silver chandelier dates from 1647, and a large silver-and-crystal crucifix from Orrefors was installed in 1976.
Pulpit and bell
The cathedral’s ornate pulpit was made in 1710 after the great fire of 1702. Designed by Nicodemus Tessin and carved by Burchard Precht, it is the largest pulpit in Sweden. Its decoration includes John the Baptist preaching in the desert, Saint Paul in Athens, and the parable of the Labourers in the Vineyard. The bell called Thornan was installed after the fire. Swedish forces under King Charles XII seized it from Toruń in Poland in 1703 as war booty during the Great Northern War.
Chapels and burial monuments
Vasa Chapel
The Vasa Chapel at the eastern end of the chancel is the cathedral’s largest chapel. Completed in 1583 as the Chapel of the Virgin Mary, it later became the burial monument of Gustav Vasa and his family. Its decoration includes Sweden’s national arms and some of the oldest known Swedish and Finnish coats of arms. Yellow stars on a blue vaulted ceiling continue a Catholic symbol of Saint Mary.
Seven large frescoes in the chapel were painted over several years by Johan Gustaf Sandberg. They depict episodes from Gustav Vasa’s life, including Speech to the People of Dalarna outside Mora Church. Frescoes also decorate the nave vaults.
Finsta Chapel
The Finsta Chapel, also called Saint Eric’s Chapel, occupies the northwest corner of the chancel. It contains Saint Eric’s relics and crown in a gold-plated shrine made after King John III melted the earlier shrine in 1580. Judge Birger Persson and his wife were entombed there in 1328. A smaller gold-plated shrine holds a relic of their daughter, Saint Bridget.
Sture Chapel
The Sture Chapel is the memorial tomb of Svante Sture and his sons Nils and Erik. Its 1520 reredos, an ornamental screen behind an altar, depicts the story of Mary’s parents, Anne and Joachim. The chapel’s association with the Sture family is complemented by the survival of their death clothing in the Treasury Museum.
Jagellonica Chapel
The sacristy was converted at the end of the sixteenth century into a burial chapel for Catherine Jagiellon, John III’s queen. Also called the Jagellonica Chapel, it contains her tomb monument, designed by Willem Boy and crowned by a marble vault. The chapel forms the cathedral’s most important post-medieval alteration to the plan, apart from the broader changes made after the fires.
Windows, paintings, and collections
Several windows retain their original shape and size. The stained-glass designs now seen in most of the windows were installed mainly during the late nineteenth-century renovation by the Gothenburg firm Svenska Glasmåleri, following the fire damage and later replacement of the glazing. The large windows above the portals depict the Trinity: God the Father above the west door, God the Son above the south door, and the Holy Spirit above the north door. The south window is the largest in the church, while the limestone rose window in the north portal dates from the thirteenth century and remains unchanged.
The original interior emphasized the arch ribs and portal components, and the brick was painted with red and white stripes. Fifteenth-century Late Gothic figure frescoes with decorative vine leaves survive in parts of the church, including the chancel and the chapel originally dedicated to Saint Eric and Saint Olaf. These paintings have been extensively restored, and the chancel frescoes were probably produced by the workshop of Albertus Pictor.
The cathedral contains a Judensau, an antisemitic medieval motif portraying Jewish men suckling a pig. It is probably the work of a travelling German artist. The Treasury Museum in the north tower holds gold and silver objects used in religious services, a textile collection including Queen Margaret’s golden gown, and the burial regalia of Gustav Vasa, John III, and their wives. It also displays the clothing worn by the Sture victims when they died.
Tapestries in the Chapel of Remembrance date from 1976 and recount important events in the cathedral’s history. Together with the chapels, frescoes, furnishings, relic shrines, royal regalia, and memorials, they form part of the building’s material record as both an archiepiscopal church and a place of national remembrance.
Nearby sites
