Travelling around Northern Europe in our grand tour of 2024-2025, we visited the Swedish capital of Stockholm for a few days. We had no specific plans or bookings, and we wandered down the street from our hotel at Queens Hotel, down the street Drottninggatan. Here we crossed the bridge at Riksbron to go through the Swedish Parliament buildings to get to the Old Town of Gamla Stan, and then we came across the Royal Palace at Kungilga slottet.

Royal Palace

Once we entered the Yttre borggården (Parade Square), we bought our tickets for 180 SEK, and were directed to enter the Royal Apartments in the North Wing. It was a cold day, and we were encouraged to leave our coats in the ticket building, and to cross the parade ground! We shivered our way over, and had access to the Museum Three Crowns and the Royal Apartments.

Museum Three Crowns

The museum is below the main building, and shows the past history of the castles and palace that have stood in this location since 1252. The museum takes a big focus on the fires that have destroyed the buildings – because there have been over 20 fires, on average one every person’s lifetime. The palace is heated with wood, and much of the structure is also wood, leading to a terrible combination.

The museum then goes deeper in to the foundations, revealing some interesting artefacts from the history. Unfortunately, once you follow the path through, there is a dead-end, so you have to walk back through the museum that you have seen. Also, I found the displays to be disjointed and not really following any flow of information – there were random collections of carved stone, items found in wells during renovations that showed what ordinary people did, occasional references to defensive weapons and techniques, mixed in with Royal life depictions.

Royal Apartments

The main attraction is the grand Royal Apartments, magnificent Palace rooms that are dripping with opulence and history. We climbed the grand staircase in to the rooms. The ceiling here is amazing, we almost stumbled on the staircase whilst walking and looking up!

We found the usual enormous rooms with giant dining tables, throne rooms and a cavernous silver throne room. Interestingly, there is also a modernised room that the current King uses, which is in the Scandinavian minimalist style, with bare wood and squared furniture. Grand statues are everywhere.

The Treasury

Going deep down under three floors, is the vault for the Crown Jewels of Sweden. Interestingly, it appears that the crowns, swords, and scepters are specific for each King and Queen, Prince and Princess – not re-used for each new King as they are in the UK. There were amazing old chests showing intricate locks, and other interesting artefacts.

Of course, as we often find, the structure of the Treasury was as interesting as the displays. The deep arched vaults and substantial vault doors were ancient and inspiring. The entrance hall to the Vault was also very grand in itself.

Changing of the Guard

As we had not planned to go here, we had no knowledge of what was to come. We just happened to be in the right place to see the daily Changing of the Guard at 12:15. This was quite an ornate and significant affair. There was a speech (in English and Swedish) that described the reason and history of the guard change. Then a squad of more than twenty five troops, with flag bearers and officers, marched out to relieve two soldiers who were standing on guard.

The official troops in their formal ceremony were supported by armed and camouflaged soldiers who were watching over the ceremony. We found our place amongst the crowds, and watched the whole process, with the commentary explaining what was going on.