Storkyrkan: Stockholm’s Cathedral and Historic Parish Church
Site at a Glance
- Rating
- 4.5
- 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 page19 sections
History
Storkyrkan, also known as Stockholm Cathedral, is Stockholm’s oldest church in Sweden, standing in Gamla stan between Stockholm Palace and Stortorget, the historic main square. Built by the medieval Swedish church community, its oldest surviving parts probably belong to the church consecrated in 1306, although its early history remains uncertain. Together with the palace, the square, and Stockholm’s first town hall, it formed part of the city’s earliest urban centre.
Medieval foundation and expansion
A church in Stockholm is first recorded in 1279, while the consecration of the city church is recorded in 1306. The building may have replaced an earlier church, may have remained under construction for an extended period, or may have been reconsecrated in 1306. Tradition attributes its foundation to Birger Jarl, the thirteenth-century Swedish statesman and regent traditionally regarded as Stockholm’s founder.
Saint Nicholas was the church’s principal medieval patron. He was a Christian saint traditionally associated with sailors, merchants, and charitable protection, and his dedication was especially common in trading towns around the Baltic Sea. Storkyrkan was also dedicated to Saint Mary and Saint Eric. Until the 1590s, it served as Stockholm’s only parish church and as the parish church of the entire city.
The church was enlarged and rebuilt in successive stages during the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. These changes reflected Stockholm’s growing population and the desire of monarchs and citizens to express influence through the church’s decoration. A donation by King Magnus IV and his wife, Blanche of Namur, in 1346 probably marked the addition of the first chapel. A second chapel had been built before 1361, and further chapels followed in the early fifteenth century. By the end of the Middle Ages, Storkyrkan contained more than 30 chapels or separately dedicated altars.
Between 1474 and 1496, a major rebuilding campaign brought the chapels into a unified interior, installed new vaults, created an evenly high ceiling, and extended the church eastward with a choir. By the end of the fifteenth century, the building had acquired its basic present size and form. The choir was later demolished during the sixteenth century.
The Reformation and royal power
During the Reformation, the sixteenth-century movement that took many northern European territories away from Roman Catholicism, Sweden adopted Lutheranism, the Protestant tradition associated with Martin Luther. The state confiscated much of Storkyrkan’s property, including large quantities of silver from its chapels and altars. Some sculptures associated with the former Catholic practices were vandalised.
Storkyrkan became an important centre of the Swedish Reformation. Lutheran preaching was first conducted publicly in Sweden there, and in 1525 it became the first Swedish church where Mass was celebrated in Swedish rather than Latin. Olaus Petri, one of the principal advocates of the Reformation, served as a priest at the church. The German-speaking and Finnish-speaking congregations later moved to the German Church and to a chapel in the town hall.
When Christian II of Denmark resided in Stockholm in 1520, the church was fortified by Adam van Düren amid the political tensions that led to the Stockholm Bloodbath of 1521, a political mass execution connected with the struggle over Swedish rule. Van Düren also made an allegorical sculpture at the base of one of the church’s pillars. Further changes to the pillars, vaults, and walls were carried out during the reign of King John III to bring the interior into greater visual harmony.
Baroque transformation
During the eighteenth century, the medieval exterior was transformed into a largely Baroque design. Johan Eberhard Carlberg began repairing the tower in 1736, but the work developed into a complete exterior renovation and the construction of a new spire. Carlberg’s fourth proposal, which reconciled his ideas with those of Carl Hårleman, was accepted. The change from Gothic to Baroque took place between 1736 and 1745, and the exterior still largely reflects Carlberg’s work.
In 1777, Erik Palmstedt redesigned the southern side of the churchyard in connection with the construction of the Stockholm Stock Exchange. He also designed a stairwell attached to the southern side of the tower, completed in 1778. King Gustav III proposed replacing the entire church with a building inspired by the Pantheon in Rome, but the plan was never carried out.
New Neo-Gothic iron tracery was installed in the windows during the 1860s, and other nineteenth-century alterations partly addressed fire safety. Architect Ernst Stenhammar directed a major renovation between 1903 and 1909. A further comprehensive renovation followed in 1952–1954.
Cathedral, parish church, and civic setting
Storkyrkan became the cathedral of the newly created Diocese of Stockholm in 1942. It has since served as the seat of the Bishop of Stockholm within the Church of Sweden while remaining both a cathedral and a parish church.
The church has also served civic and representative purposes. During the period of the Riksdag of the Estates, Sweden’s pre-modern representative assembly in which the clergy formed one of the recognized estates, the clergy commonly held its meetings there. Stockholm’s city council met in the church during the Middle Ages, and a sermon traditionally marks the opening of the Riksdag each autumn. Storkyrkan has been used for concerts since the end of the eighteenth century, while the Storkyrkan Boys Choir traces its roots to the seventeenth century.
Coronations, weddings, and commemorations
Storkyrkan’s connection with the Swedish royal family began early, and the church was repeatedly used for royal coronations. The first was the coronation of Magnus IV and Blanche of Namur in 1336, conducted by Engelbert von Dolen, Bishop of Tartu, in the presence of the Swedish bishops. Most medieval Swedish coronations nevertheless took place in Uppsala Cathedral.
King John of Denmark was crowned King of Sweden at Storkyrkan in 1497 during the Kalmar Union, the political union that joined Denmark, Norway, and Sweden under one monarch from the late fourteenth to the early sixteenth century. His son Christian II was crowned there on 4 November 1521 in a ceremony intended to signify Sweden’s submission to Danish rule. Representatives of Emperor Charles V presented Christian with the Order of the Golden Fleece, a prestigious European chivalric order founded in the fifteenth century. The Stockholm Bloodbath followed a few days later.
The wedding of King Eric XIV and Karin Månsdotter, followed by Karin’s coronation, took place at Storkyrkan in 1568. Maria Eleonora of Brandenburg was crowned Queen of Sweden there in 1620 after her marriage to King Gustavus Adolphus. Queen Christina was crowned in 1650, King Charles XII in 1697, and King Frederick I in 1720. From then onward, every Swedish monarch except Gustav IV Adolf was crowned at Storkyrkan. The last royal coronation there was that of King Oscar II in 1873.
The church hosted several other royal weddings. These included the marriage of the future King Oscar I and Josephine of Leuchtenberg in 1823 and the wedding of Crown Princess Victoria of Sweden and Daniel Westling in 2010. Two daughters of King Gustav Vasa and a son of King John III also married there, as did other members of the royal family during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.
Storkyrkan was rarely used as a royal burial church because Riddarholmen Church served that purpose until 1950, but it hosted important twentieth-century funerals. In 1930, funerals were held there for Salomon August Andrée, Knut Frænkel, and Nils Strindberg after their remains were recovered from the failed Arctic balloon expedition. Later funerals included those of the writer Astrid Lindgren, who died in 2002, and Sara Danius, permanent secretary of the Swedish Academy, who died in 2019.
Memorial services included one after the sinking of MS Estonia in 1994, attended by the royal family and the Prime Minister of Sweden, and another after the assassination of Foreign Minister Anna Lindh in 2003. Military victories were commemorated at the church after Narva in 1700, Pułtusk and Thorn in 1703, and Svensksund in 1790.
Remains
Setting and exterior
Storkyrkan is built principally of brick, with foundations strengthened by sandstone and granite. It measures approximately 63 metres in length and 37.2 metres in width, while the tower rises about 60.4 metres. Streets surround it on three sides: Trångsund to the west, Storkyrkobrinken and Högvaktsterrassen to the north, and Slottsbacken to the east. A courtyard occupies the southern side.
The church forms part of a Baroque architectural ensemble that includes Stockholm Palace, Axel Oxenstierna Palace, Slottsbacken and its obelisk, and Tessin Palace. Two small pavilions in the southern courtyard were designed by Erik Palmstedt as wings for the Stock Exchange but were built in 1767 as the church’s burial chapel and coach-house. Wrought-iron gates close the courtyard to the west and east. The surviving statues on the western gate probably represent Reason and Divine Love and were made by Peter Schultz in 1675. Statues formerly placed on the eastern gate represented Caution and Hope and were made by Daniel Kortz in 1702.
A statue of Olaus Petri stands beside the eastern facade, facing Slottsbacken. The work was made by Theodor Lundberg and inaugurated in 1898. Lines in the pavement beside the facade mark the former extent of the choir demolished during the reign of King Gustav Vasa.
The exterior is uniformly Baroque apart from Palmstedt’s somewhat different stairwell. Buttresses treated as pilasters divide the northern and southern facades, while pilasters and mouldings decorate the tower and gables. A sixteenth-century sundial is fixed to the south-eastern corner, and a large Latin-inscribed memorial plaque on the eastern wall commemorates the eighteenth-century rebuilding. Twenty-eight windows provide light. The main entrance lies at the base of the western tower, with additional entrances in the northern wall and on the southern side.
Medieval structure and interior
The original church appears to have consisted of a nave with two aisles, a wooden ceiling carried by six pillars, and brick walls. Its principal entrance was probably on the west, with possible side entrances in the northern and southern walls. In form and construction, it belonged to a group of brick churches around Lake Mälaren that included Strängnäs Cathedral, Saint Mary’s Church in Sigtuna, and Skokloster Church.
The present building is a hall church, meaning that the central nave and side aisles are approximately the same height and form a unified interior volume. Its irregular rectangular plan follows pre-existing streets. The interior is five bays wide and eight bays long. Brick vaults rest on pillars and richly articulated compound piers. The eight central bays have complex rib vaults, which are strengthened by intersecting structural ribs, while the other areas have groin vaults formed by intersecting barrel vaults.
The central nave divides the interior, with open benches on either side. The choir floor is three steps higher than the rest of the church and is enclosed to the north and south by wrought-iron fences. Three galleries occupy the western end, one containing the organ. Most windows are clear. The north-westernmost window contains twentieth-century stained glass by Einar Forseth, and the eastern rose window was made in France and donated in 1858.
Saint Mary’s Chapel
The first chapel, probably associated with the royal donation of 1346, was dedicated to Saint Mary and stood on the southern side of the eastern end. Its four bays remain discernible within the church. The chapel contained Early Gothic wall paintings in a style unusual among Swedish churches, and the paintings were later heavily restored.
Medieval sculpture and furnishings
Murals by Albertus Pictor were added to the south-western vaults during the fifteenth century. They are no longer visible from the church floor. The reconstruction of 1474–1496 incorporated the medieval chapels into a single space and produced the uniformly high vaulted ceiling.
A late-medieval equestrian sculpture of Saint George and the Dragon stands north of the choir. It is approximately 3.5 metres high and shows Saint George mounted and attacking the dragon. A subsidiary group depicts the rescued princess with the symbolic Lamb of God, while scenes from the legend cover the plinth.
Regent Sten Sture the Elder commissioned the sculpture as a funerary monument for himself and his wife after his victory over Danish troops at the Battle of Brunkeberg in 1471. It was inaugurated in 1489. Although unsigned, it is widely attributed to Bernt Notke on stylistic and archival grounds. The monument carries religious, political, and personal meanings within the church.
The church possesses an oak crucifix probably made between 1475 and 1500. Its earlier polychromy, or multicoloured painted decoration, has been lost. A rood cross from around 1400 formerly belonged to Storkyrkan and is now displayed at the Museum of Medieval Stockholm.
The baptismal font was made in 1514, according to its inscription. It is carved from Uppland limestone and belongs to a stylistic group of fonts found in central and northern Sweden. A bronze seven-branched candelabrum, approximately 3.7 metres high and probably made in the late fifteenth century, also belongs to the church. Lions form its base and two human faces appear on its shaft. The type is unusual in Sweden and was probably made in Germany.
Altarpieces and paintings
The Silver Altarpiece
The main altarpiece, a decorated structure placed behind or near an altar, is the Silver Altarpiece. Margareta Pedersdotter, widow of Johan Adler Salvius, donated it in 1652. Made in Hamburg in the workshop of Eustachius Erdmüller, it is a Baroque work of ebony and silver consisting of a central section and two later wings.
The central section is arranged in three levels above a predella, the lower base of an altarpiece, and is topped by a statuette of the resurrected Christ. Silver reliefs on the predella show the Crucifixion, the Entombment, Christ in the realm of the dead, and the Last Supper. Silver statuettes of Moses and John the Baptist flank the Crucifixion panel, while the Four Evangelists flank the second and third panels. The largest relief is the Crucifixion, which may have been inspired by Peter Paul Rubens’s 1620 painting Christ on the Cross.
Former medieval altarpieces
Several medieval altarpieces once associated with Storkyrkan are now elsewhere. One made for the church in the fifteenth century is in Boglösa Church in Uppland, another is in Jäder Church in Södermanland, and a third, made in Lübeck in 1468 and probably created by Hermen Rode, is preserved in the Swedish History Museum. An altarpiece donated by Carl Gyllenhielm in 1629 after it had been taken as war loot from Braniewo was later given away. Its surviving central section is now in Kläckeberga Church in Småland.
Large Baroque paintings
David Klöcker Ehrenstrahl painted two monumental works, The Crucifixion in 1695 and The Last Judgment in 1696. They were originally intended for the Royal Chapel at Tre Kronor, Stockholm’s former royal castle. Both survived the fire that destroyed the castle and were subsequently displayed in Storkyrkan. The Crucifixion is 7.4 metres high, while The Last Judgment exceeds 10 metres.
Other paintings include an epitaph taken as war loot from Frombork in 1626 and a seventeenth-century Russian icon of Saint Nicholas, probably made in Moscow. Swedish troops seized the icon after a battle in 1703, and General Carl Magnus Stuart donated it to the church.
Royal, funerary, and commemorative features
Pulpit and royal pews
The pulpit is attached to a pillar on the northern side of the nave. Burchard Precht designed and constructed it between 1698 and 1702 in gilt wood, using mouldings and reliefs. The two royal pews stand one bay east of the pulpit, attached to the northern and southern pillars. Their lower sections are enclosed seating areas that formerly contained thrones. Above them are gilt wooden canopies shaped like oversized royal crowns and supported by angelic sculptures.
Nicodemus Tessin the Younger designed the royal pews, and Burchard Precht built them for the royal family. The church also contains decorated graves and funerary monuments, including those of the family of Jesper Mattson Cruus af Edeby and Johan Adler Salvius. A memorial plaque to Nicodemus Tessin the Elder, Nicodemus Tessin the Younger, and Carl Gustav Tessin was made by the sculptor Carl Milles.
Historic objects
The helmet and spurs of Saint Olaf, Olaf II Haraldsson, the medieval king of Norway who became a Christian saint, were displayed in Storkyrkan from 1564. They are described as the oldest preserved war trophies taken by Swedish troops and were moved to the Swedish History Museum in the 1860s.
Vädersolstavlan, the oldest known coloured depiction of Stockholm, was donated to the church by Olaus Magnus in 1535 and painted by Urban Målare. The painting now visible is a 1636 copy by Jacob Heinrich Elbfas that appears to reproduce the original faithfully. It shows Stockholm in the early sixteenth century beneath a sun dog, a bright optical phenomenon produced when sunlight passes through ice crystals, observed over the city on 20 April 1535. The painting was restored in 1998–1999.
One of the world’s oldest votive ships, a model ship offered to or hung in a church as a religious or commemorative object, comes from Storkyrkan. The seventeenth-century vessel is now kept in Stockholm’s Maritime Museum, while a copy hangs in the church.
Organ
The present organ dates from 1960 and was made in Denmark by Marcussen & Søn. Its three-bay facade was designed in 1789. Storkyrkan currently has four choirs, continuing the church’s long association with musical performance.
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