Lejonbacken
Encyclopedia
Stockholm Palace
The Stockholm Palace is the official residence and major royal palace of the Swedish monarch. . Stockholm Palace is located on Stadsholmen , in Gamla Stan in the capital, Stockholm...
in Stockholm
Stockholm
Stockholm is the capital and the largest city of Sweden and constitutes the most populated urban area in Scandinavia. Stockholm is the most populous city in Sweden, with a population of 851,155 in the municipality , 1.37 million in the urban area , and around 2.1 million in the metropolitan area...
, Sweden
Sweden
Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....
, during the 1780s named after the pair of sculpted Medici lions
Medici lions
The Medici lions are two lion sculptures placed around 1600 at the Villa Medici, Rome, Italy, and since 1789 displayed at the Loggia dei Lanzi, Florence. The sculptures depict standing male lions with a sphere under one claw, looking to the side...
prominently exposed on the stone railings of the ramps.
Setting
From the crest between the ramps is a panoramic view over the stately bridge NorrbroNorrbro
Norrbro is an arch bridge over Norrström in central Stockholm. It extends north from the northern front of the Stockholm Palace passing over Helgeandsholmen in front of the parliament building, Riksdagen, and from there over to Gustaf Adolfs torg...
stretching across the Parliament
Rikdag
Rikdag, Ricdag, Riddag, or Rihdag was the Margrave of Meissen from 979 until his death. In 982, he acquired the marches of Merseburg and Zeitz. In 985, he was made count in the Schwabengau. He temporarily reunited all of the southern marca Geronis under his command...
island Helgeandsholmen
Helgeandsholmen
Helgeandsholmen is a small island in central Stockholm, Sweden. It is located north of Stadsholmen, and east of Strömsborg, with which, together with Riddarholmen, it forms Gamla stan, the old town of Stockholm...
over to square Gustav Adolfs torg
Gustav Adolfs torg
Gustav Adolfs torg is the name of several squares in Sweden.*Gustav Adolfs torg, Stockholm*Gustaf Adolfs torg, Göteborg*Gustaf Adolfs torg, Malmö*Gustav Adolfs torg, Helsingborg...
, the latter flanked by the Royal Opera
Royal Swedish Opera
Kungliga Operan is Sweden's national stage for opera and ballet.-Location and Environment:...
and the so called Palace of the Hereditary Prince
Arvfurstens palats
Arvfurstens palats is a palace located at Gustav Adolfs Torg in central Stockholm.Designed by Erik Palmstedt, the palace was originally the private residence of Princess Sophia Albertina. It was built 1783-1794 and declared a historical monument in 1935 and subsequently restored by Ivar Tengbom...
housing the Ministry for Foreign Affairs
Ministry for Foreign Affairs (Sweden)
The Ministry for Foreign Affairs is responsible for Swedish foreign policy.Current ministers:*Carl Bildt Head of Office and Minister for Foreign Affairs.*Ewa Björling as Minister for Foreign Trade...
. The bridge was originally intended to be extended some ten kilometres further north to the royal gardens at Haga
Hagaparken
Hagaparken , or simply Haga in Solna Municipality just north of Stockholm, Sweden is a vast and popular nature area, with large parks, lakes, woods and gardens...
and a royal palace there never built. The eastern ramp leads down to Strömbron
Strömbron
Strömbron is a 140 metres long viaduct in central Stockholm, Sweden. Stretching over Norrström, it is connecting the old city Gamla stan to the northern-central district Norrmalm, or, more specifically, to Blasieholmen near the park Kungsträdgården.- History :Though initially put forward by the...
and Skeppsbron
Skeppsbron
Skeppsbron is both a street and a quay in Gamla stan, the old town of Stockholm, capital of Sweden, stretching from the bridge Strömbron in front of the Royal Palace southward to Slussen....
, and the western to Mynttorget
Mynttorget
Mynttorget is a public square in Gamla stan, the old town in central Stockholm, Sweden.- Setting :From the square the bridge Stallbron leads over to the Parliament island Helgeandsholmen; to the west the street Myntgatan leads to Riddarhustorget, while the quay Kanslikajen stretches along the...
, while the quay Slottskajen
Slottskajen
Slottskajen is a quay and a street in Gamla stan, the old town in central Stockholm, Sweden.Named after its location north of the Royal Palace, it stretches west from Skeppsbron and Strömbron to the square Mynttorget, overlooked by Lejonbacken, the ramps leading to the palace's northern entrance,...
passes beneath the entire composition along the canal Stallkanalen.
Inside the north-eastern wing of the palace is the Gustav III's Museum of Antiquities. Opened in 1794 and thus one of the oldest museums in the world, it displays over 200 sculptures and antiquities collected by King Gustav III
Gustav III of Sweden
Gustav III was King of Sweden from 1771 until his death. He was the eldest son of King Adolph Frederick and Queen Louise Ulrica of Sweden, she a sister of Frederick the Great of Prussia....
during a trip in Italy as they were originally exhibited.
Underneath the ramps is the Tre Kronor Museum. When inaugurated in 1999, it replaced an older and much smaller museum. It exhibits the history and archaeological remains of the medieval castle originally built in the 13th century and preceding the present palace. Inside the five metres thick medieval walls and under the large bricked vaults are historical objects and modern models retelling the development of the palace from its Viking
Viking
The term Viking is customarily used to refer to the Norse explorers, warriors, merchants, and pirates who raided, traded, explored and settled in wide areas of Europe, Asia and the North Atlantic islands from the late 8th to the mid-11th century.These Norsemen used their famed longships to...
origin in the 10th century.
History
Ramps for the northern front were originally included in proposals for a rebuilding of the medieval palace Tre KronorTre kronor (castle)
Tre Kronor or Three Crowns was a castle located in Stockholm, Sweden, on the site where Stockholm Palace is today. It is believed to have been a citadel that Birger Jarl built into a royal castle in the middle of the 13th century...
in the mid 17th century, and elevation
Elevation
The elevation of a geographic location is its height above a fixed reference point, most commonly a reference geoid, a mathematical model of the Earth's sea level as an equipotential gravitational surface ....
s from the 1690s also featured lions. Though the old palace was completely destroyed in the devastating fire on May 7, 1697, a new proposal for the northern front was quickly produced, presenting the ramps mostly in their present shape. The portions of the ramps next to the façade were quickly completed and the lions and their plinths were installed in 1704. The work on the lower lateral parts were however not begun until after Norrbro
Norrbro
Norrbro is an arch bridge over Norrström in central Stockholm. It extends north from the northern front of the Stockholm Palace passing over Helgeandsholmen in front of the parliament building, Riksdagen, and from there over to Gustaf Adolfs torg...
, the bridge extending north from the palace, was completed in 1807, and not finished until 1826-1834 when the last stage of the construction was realized to the plans of Per Axel Nyström (1793-1868).
Models for the bronze lions were completed in 1700 by the French sculptor Bernard Foucquet the Younger (1640-after 1711), who used stone lions at the Villa Medici
Villa Medici
The Villa Medici is a mannerist villa and an architectural complex with a garden contiguous with the larger Borghese gardens, on the Pincian Hill next to Trinità dei Monti in Rome, Italy. The Villa Medici, founded by Ferdinando I de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany and now property of the French...
in Rome as prototypes for the commission, while the Crown had to melt sculptures taken at the Kronborg Castle
Kronborg Castle
Kronborg is a star fortress situated near the town of Helsingør on the extreme northeastern tip of Zealand at the narrowest point of the Øresund, the sound between Denmark and Sweden...
in Denmark
Denmark
Denmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe. The countries of Denmark and Greenland, as well as the Faroe Islands, constitute the Kingdom of Denmark . It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries, southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark...
to assemble the required amount of bronze.
A wide range of rocks from various regional sources were used for the palace which is discernible in the northern front where hard to cut but more lasting rock is used for the bases and railings (e.g. so called Stockholmsgranit, younger granite
Granite
Granite is a common and widely occurring type of intrusive, felsic, igneous rock. Granite usually has a medium- to coarse-grained texture. Occasionally some individual crystals are larger than the groundmass, in which case the texture is known as porphyritic. A granitic rock with a porphyritic...
found readily around the capital, grey or red in colour), and less compact rock, easier to carve but less perpetual for more elaborated details - sandstone
Sandstone
Sandstone is a sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-sized minerals or rock grains.Most sandstone is composed of quartz and/or feldspar because these are the most common minerals in the Earth's crust. Like sand, sandstone may be any colour, but the most common colours are tan, brown, yellow,...
from Gotland
Gotland
Gotland is a county, province, municipality and diocese of Sweden; it is Sweden's largest island and the largest island in the Baltic Sea. At 3,140 square kilometers in area, the region makes up less than one percent of Sweden's total land area...
for ornaments and mouldings, and marble from Kolmården
Kolmården
Kolmården is a large forest that separates the Swedish provinces of Södermanland and Östergötland, two of the country's main agricultural areas, from each other.-History:...
for balustrades and bollard
Bollard
A bollard is a short vertical post. Originally it meant a post used on a ship or a quay, principally for mooring. The word now also describes a variety of structures to control or direct road traffic, such as posts arranged in a line to obstruct the passage of motor vehicles...
s. The original plans of King Charles XIII
Charles XIII of Sweden
Charles XIII & II also Carl, , was King of Sweden from 1809 and King of Norway from 1814 until his death...
to use granite for the northern front were finally carried through by King Charles XIV John
Charles XIV John of Sweden
Charles XIV & III John, also Carl John, Swedish and Norwegian: Karl Johan was King of Sweden and King of Norway from 1818 until his death...
using rock from just north of the city and from the never completed palace of Gustav III at Haga.
The two columns flanking the central entrance are six metres tall and cut from single pieces. They made a lasting impression on their arrival to the capital and were the proud of the architect when erected in 1695 (thus two years before the great fire). The quadrangular pedestal
Pedestal
Pedestal is a term generally applied to the support of a statue or a vase....
s were however substituted for painted cast iron
Cast iron
Cast iron is derived from pig iron, and while it usually refers to gray iron, it also identifies a large group of ferrous alloys which solidify with a eutectic. The color of a fractured surface can be used to identify an alloy. White cast iron is named after its white surface when fractured, due...
in the mid 19th century.
In 2000, a public convenience from the mid 18th century, arguably the oldest of the city, was discovered under the ramps following an archaeological excavation. It used the water of the canal passing in front of the palace, both to a precursor to the modern W.C. and to dispose the waste matter.
In 2006 the old façade lightning was replaced by a new, doubling the amount of light while considerably reducing the energy required and giving enhanced prominence to details and nuances.
External links
- Panorama of Lejonbacken (QTVRQuickTime VRQuickTime VR is a type of image file format developed by Apple Inc. for QuickTime. It allows the creation and viewing of photographically-captured panoramas and the exploration of objects through images taken at multiple viewing angles...
) - Royal Court - Gustav III's Museum of Antiquities
- Royal Court - Museum Tre kronor