STOCCOLMA. – Capital of the Kingdom of Sweden, S. (Stockholm in Swedish), on the western shore of the Baltic Sea, where the slow action of glacialism has created such a tangle of lakes, islands and peninsulas, canals and rivers as to give the locality its distinctive character.
Around 1100, the mouth of Lake Mälaren was already fortified, and on the hill of the island there stood two fortresses to watch over the two waterways now called Norrström and Söderström. Around the middle of the 13th century, Birger Jarl built his Royal Castle, the city’s first enclosing walls and, outside them, the two long streets, one of which, the «Västerlänggatan» (the long western street), still exists between the north and south of S.; to his time also dates the first construction of the church of S. Nicola, which is the oldest in S. (Storkyrkan). It was erected around 1250, rebuilt in 1306 with three naves and a wooden roof; in 1340 the chapel dedicated to the Blessed Virgin was added; at the beginning of the 15th century five bays were added on the eastern side and a series of chapels along the walls, while inside all the vaults were raised to the same height; at the end of the same century the naves were increased to five by demolishing the chapels; in the middle of the 16th century King Gustav Vasa demolished the elevation of the choir; and at the beginning of the 18th century the exterior was unified so as to harmonize it with the Royal Castle. The tower dates from around 1740; the interior was reduced in the Baroque style; it contains the wooden group of St. George executed by Bernt Notke of Lübeck in 1489. The silver and ebony altar with Baroque decorations is the work of E. Erdmüller of Hamburg; the great choir candelabrum is a work of northern Germany from the 15th century; the paintings of the Crucifixion and the Last Judgment are by David Klöcker Ehrnstrahl, around 1695. The sumptuous royal stalls were designed in 1684 in the Italian style by Nicodemo Tessin the Younger, as was the pulpit around 1700. The baptismal font dates from 1514 and comes from Uppland. The church is now used for Protestant worship.
The church of Riddarholmen belonged to the Franciscans and was founded, together with the adjoining convent, around 1270. The primitive church was bounded to the south by a wall divided below by niches, beyond which stood a cloister. Its founder and benefactor was King Magnus Ladulås, who was crudely represented in a fresco. The cloister was enlarged in the 15th century and connected to the central nave by arches. The church, now occupied by Protestants, has three naves and an elongated choir; four round pillars separate the central nave from the northern side nave, while four rectangular pillars separate it from the southern side nave. Near the choir are the tombs of Kings Carlo Knutsson and Magnus Ladulås. From the ancient church there remains the ogival-vaulted portico on the northern side. Between the 17th and 19th centuries, a series of burial chapels were built around the church; on the southern side are those of the Gustavo (around 1630) and Bernadotte dynasties (1860); north of the choir is the Carolinian chapel, designed by the Tessins and C. Härleman (1671–1743); farther west is the Banér chapel.
Around 1400 the city walls were enlarged to include Riddarholmen and Helgeandsholmen, where the Parliament Building now stands; the two cylindrical towers, one situated in the building of the Svea Court of Appeal and the other, called Birger Jarl’s Tower, in that of the municipal archives, date from around 1500. To the west of the church of Riddarholmen, the remains of the ancient Franciscan cloister can be identified, and in the southern part of the city the remains of the Dominican cloister were discovered. But the old city was devastated several times by fires that destroyed the houses, then made of wood; these were replaced only in the 16th century by brick buildings inspired by the architecture of northern Saxony and France. The period of great building activity, however, was the 17th century. At that time the church of S. James, begun at the end of the 16th century during the reign of John II, was completed; around 1640 the church known as the German Church was erected on the site of a guildhall; its silver baptismal basin comes from Augsburg. Between 1630 and 1640, after the fire of 1625, the great governor of S., Klas Fleming, drew up plans for the expansion of the city within the limits that remained in place until the beginning of the 20th century. The most notable example of the architecture of the period in S. is the Palace of the Nobility, with a pilastered façade, the work of the Dutchman Justus Vingboons; it was completed by Giovanni de la Vallée, who was also responsible for the Palace of Axel Oxenstierna near the Castle and, together with Nicodemo Tessin, whose son, also named Nicodemo, introduced the Italian Baroque into S., for the Palace of the former State Bank, the City Hall and the construction of the new Castle, completed by his son Carlo Gustavo Tessin, C. Härleman and C. J. Adlcreutz; the latter two also erected the monumental North Bridge. The Palace of the Grand Governor was erected around 1700 by Nicodemo Tessin the Younger, who successfully fused motifs of the Italian Baroque while adapting them to the Swedish climate; he was assisted in the interior by the Frenchmen De Maux, J. Fouquet and E. Chauveau. Around 1770, the architects C. J. Cronstedt and E. Palmestedt erected the Stock Exchange in the Rococo style. New plans for the development of S. were drawn up by A. Lindhagen in 1869, with the new districts of Straudvägen and Norr Mälarstrand, the large parks of Kronobergsparken and Tantolunden, the Riksdag Palace, the new Opera House, later the Dramatic Theatre, the Nordic Museum (1888–1907), the Stadium (1912), the Palace of Justice (1915), the new City Hall (1923), the work of Ragnar i Östberg, and the Lärkstaden district with the Engelbrekt Church, extending to the modern districts of Rödbärgsstaden, Atlas and Rörstrand; the Concert Hall (1923–26), the School of Commerce and the Southern Bank are works by Ivar Tengbom; the Municipal Library, inspired by Egyptian motifs, is by E. G. Asplund. The Catholic parish churches currently in S. are those of S. Henry, in the northern part of the city (Götgatan), where the apostolic vicariate is also located; attached to it is a parish school conducted by the Poor School Sisters of Munich; and that of S. Eugenia on Norra Smedjegatan, founded in 1835, in the southern part of the city, with an attached parish school conducted by the Sisters of St. Joseph of Chambéry. There are also the two institutions of Oscar Minne and Jozefinahemmet, run by the Sisters of St. Elizabeth; the French Sisters of St. Joseph have a girls’ secondary school. For 25 years, the Friars Preachers of the Province of Paris have had the church dedicated to Our Lady under the title of the Annunciation. Since 1931, the German Salesians have had a small school and a chapel. The Dominican Sisters of the Third Order from the mother house in Freiburg, Switzerland, opened a hospice in S. in 1931. The Sisters of St. Bridget, whose mother house is in Rome, opened a house in 1923 at Djursholm, near S. The Sisters of St. Elizabeth opened a small hospital in S. in 1926.
The principal libraries are the Royal Library, rich in manuscripts, such as the “Codex aureus holmiensis,” a Gospel book from the second half of the eighth century, from the “Studium” of Canterbury; the Sacramentary of S. Amando, of the Anglo-Saxon school, from the tenth century; the famous Codex gigas, etc. Other notable libraries are those of the Karolinska Institut for medicine, of the Riksdag for history and law, and the Nobel Library in the Svenska Akademie for contemporary literature. In 1572 the Karolinska Mediks-Kirurgiska Institut was founded; in 1798 the Tekniska Högskole, a higher school with eight sections for scientific propaedeutics, architecture, chemistry, electrical engineering, civil engineering, hydraulics, mechanics, mining, and naval studies; in 1828 the Skogshögskola for the study of forests; in 1878 the Stockholms Högskola, of a university character; and, in addition, the Higher School of Commerce. The “Kungliga Akademie för de frin Konsterna” was founded in 1735 by C. G. Tessin to develop artistic education; it subsequently became the Royal Academy of Fine Arts. The “Kungliga Vetenskapsakademie,” intended to promote the natural and mathematical sciences, was established in 1739 and is divided into eleven sections. In 1736 the “Kungliga Visterhets Historie och Antikvitats Akademie” was established for history and archaeology. It consists of twenty-five academicians and publishes the Antikvarisk Tidskrift. In 1786 King Gustavo III founded the “Svenska Akademie,” or Academy of the Eighteen, so called from the number of its members, for literature. In 1895 Alfredo Berardo Nobel founded the “Nobelstifelse,” with an endowment of 30 million kronor, to distribute annually five prizes to those who have distinguished themselves most in the fields of physics, chemistry, medicine, and literature, and to promote the cause of peace. The foundation is governed by a board of directors; the prizes for physics and chemistry are awarded by the Academy of Sciences of S., that for literature by the Swedish Academy, and that for peace by the Norwegian “Storting.” The Egyptian Museum, founded in 1928, contains a number of Egyptian antiquities belonging to the State; material deriving from the Austro-Swedish exploration in 1931–32 in the western delta of the Nile at Merinde Beni-Salame; funerary objects, vessels in hard stone and alabaster, jewels, scarabs, and the large statue of a king of the Middle Kingdom, perhaps Sesostris II. The Nordic Museum, inaugurated in 1873, was organized by A. Hazelius to illuminate Swedish culture, with an ethnographic collection from the Swedish provinces and a history of the civilization of the upper classes during the last four centuries. The Skansen Museum is an open-air museum in Djurgården; it was opened in 1891 and displays all the characteristic features of Swedish folklore. The State Historical Museum and the Royal Cabinet of Medals were established as early as 1670, to give an exact idea of the history of civilization in Sweden; their collections range from prehistory to the Middle Ages. The National Museum and the State Art Museum were begun as early as the reign of King Gustavo Vasa, but developed in 1777 with the collections of Queen Luisa Ulrica and King Adolfo Federico. The Museum includes painting and sculpture, with a section devoted to the Far East. The Royal Cabinet of Arms and Armour in the Nordic Museum includes a collection of weapons in general, examples of Swedish manufacture, and also a collection of State trophies. The Hallwyl Museum, in the palace of the same name (1893–99), contains approximately 400 paintings, especially from the seventeenth-century Dutch school, more than 600 porcelains from various European countries, and 600 Chinese ceramics, Chinese bronzes, and artistic furniture, illustrated in a descriptive catalogue of more than 40 volumes. The Free University of S. contains a collection of paintings by Italian, French, Dutch, and Swedish artists from various periods; this collection, donated by several benefactors, is intended to supplement the teaching of art history. The Thiel Gallery contains the largest collection of Swedish art from the end of the last century to the beginning of the present one. For the Pan-Christian Conference of S. from 19 to 30 August 1925,