Riddarholmen Church

This is where Swedish kings come to rest, and it has been that way for nearly four hundred years. Founded in twelve seventy as a Franciscan monastery, Riddarholmen Church is one of the oldest buildings in Stockholm. Every Swedish monarch from Gustavus Adolphus, who died in sixteen thirty-two, to Gustaf the Fifth, who died in nineteen fifty, is entombed somewhere inside or beneath this building. That is fifteen monarchs in total. But there is one spectacular exception. Queen Christina, who inherited the throne at age six and grew up to be one of the most fascinating rulers in European history, is not here. She converted to Catholicism in a fiercely Protestant country, abdicated the throne in sixteen fifty-four, moved to Rome, and demanded to be buried in Saint Peter's Basilica in the Vatican. She got her wish. She is one of only three women ever interred there. So every Swedish king for three centuries is buried in this church on an island in Stockholm, except one queen who told the whole country she was done with them and went to live in Italy. Now look up at that iron spire. That is not the original. In eighteen thirty-five, lightning struck the church tower and started a fire that burned for three days. The old spire was destroyed. When they rebuilt, they chose cast iron instead of wood, which gives the church its distinctive dark, pointed silhouette against the Stockholm skyline. It is one of the most recognisable shapes in the city, and it only exists because of a lightning strike nearly two hundred years ago.