Tyska Kyrkan (German Church)

The tallest building in Gamla Stan is not Swedish. That ninety-six-metre tower looming over the medieval rooftops belongs to the German Church, and it tells you something surprising about who really ran Stockholm for much of its history. German merchants dominated trade in medieval Stockholm to such an extent that by the fourteenth century, roughly a quarter of the city's population was German. They controlled the Hanseatic trade routes that made Stockholm wealthy. In fifteen seventy-one, King John the Third granted the German merchant community the right to form their own ecclesiastical parish, the first German church parish established outside of Germany. They were not guests. They were a power base. The current tower was built in eighteen seventy-eight after the previous one was destroyed by fire. At ninety-six metres, it is the tallest structure in all of Gamla Stan, which means the most prominent feature of Stockholm's medieval skyline belongs to a foreign community. Inside, the church is lavishly decorated, and the standout piece is the Kungalaktaren, the King's Gallery. It was designed by Nicodemus Tessin the Elder for Queen Hedvig Eleonora, who was herself of German descent. Tessin is better known as the architect of Drottningholm Palace. The gallery is an ornate private viewing box where the queen could attend services without mingling with the congregation below. So a German queen, in a German church, in a Swedish city, watched over by architecture designed by the man who built Sweden's most famous palace. Stockholm's identity has always been more international than people assume.