STORKYRKAN

Description

Essentials about Storkyrkan in brief

Storkyrkan (The Great Church or Church of Saint Nicholas) is Stockholm’s cathedral church and one of the most important places of worship in Scandinavia. It is located in the Old Town (Gamla stan) right next to the Royal Palace. In its 750-year history, the church has witnessed numerous coronations and royal weddings and its impressive interior makes it worth a visit, and not just for church fans.

The history and architecture of Storkyrkan

According to tradition, the church dedicated to St. Nicholas was built by Birger Jarl, the founder of the city of Stockholm, in the middle of the 13th century at the highest point of the island of Stadsholmen. Parts of the foundation date back to this time. The church was first mentioned in documents in 1279. After significant alterations and extensions in the 14th and 15th centuries, it reached its present size and shape as a five-nave hall church in 1480.

At the end of the 17th century, it was given its baroque appearance and plastered to better match the style of the neighboring Royal Palace built shortly before. At the beginning of the 20th century, however, the plaster on the columns was removed to give the building back its medieval appearance.

Swedish kings were traditionally crowned in Storkyrkan, the last king being Oskar II in 1873. His successor Gustav V ended this tradition in 1907. The last royal wedding to date took place in the church on June 19, 1976 between Carl XVI Gustaf and the German Silvia Sommerlath. Their daughter, Crown Princess Victoria of Sweden, also married the Swede Daniel Westling in St. Nicholas Church on June 19, 2010.

The 66-metre-high church tower houses four church bells, the largest of which weighs 4.5 tons. In 1898, a bronze statue of the Swedish theologian and reformer Olaus Petri by Theodor Lundberg was erected in front of the church on Palace Square.

The interior of Storkyrkan

St. George with the dragon

The highlight inside Storkyrkan is undoubtedly the sculptural group of St. George with the dragon, created in 1489 by Lübeck artist Bernt Notke on behalf of the Swedish imperial governor Sten Sture. It is a reminder of the battle on the Brunkeberg, a hill in today’s Norrmalm district. It was the decisive battle in the Danish-Swedish War, in which the attacking Danish troops were crushed by the Swedes in 1471 and Stockholm was saved from destruction. Saint George symbolizes Sten Sture, the defeated dragon stands for the Danish King Christian I and the Virgin symbolizes the saved city of Stockholm.

The Silver Altar

Another eye-catcher in the interior of Storkyrkan is the ebony winged altar, often referred to as the Silver Altar because of its silver reliefs. It was donated to the church around the middle of the 17th century by councillor Johan Adler Salvius and his wife. The central panel comes from Germany, while the wings were made in Stockholm. After the depiction of the Last Supper on the predella, the largest and lowest silver relief shows the crucifixion of Christ between the statues of Moses and John the Baptist. This is followed by the relief with the Entombment of Christ between the statues of Matthew and Mark and finally the relief depicting Christ’s descent into hell between the statues of John and Luke. At the top of the altar, the figure of the resurrected Christ crowns the work of art. The stained glass rosette above the silver altar comes from Paris and was created in the mid-19th century.

The Vädersolstavlan

On the wall of the south aisle hangs the painting called Vädersolstavlan, which was commissioned by Olaus Petri and shows a spectacular secondary sun and halo apparition over Stockholm from 1535. This depiction of Stockholm is also the oldest surviving view of the city. The original painting has been lost, the one on display is a good copy from the 1630s by Jacob Heinrich Elbfas and is of great significance for the history of Stockholm.

The pulpit and Petri’s tomb

The pulpit made by sculptor Burchard Precht in the French Baroque style from around 1700 is also beautiful to look at. Beneath it is the tombstone of the Swedish reformer Olaus Petri, who translated the New Testament into Swedish for the first time. Petri was first a preacher and later the pastor of Storkyrkan, which, after it finally became Protestant in 1527, was the first church in Sweden to hold services in Swedish.