House of Nobility (Sweden)

The House of Nobility (Swedish: Riddarhuset) in , Sweden, is a corporation and a building, that maintains records and acts as an interest group on behalf of the Swedish nobility.

The name is literally translated as House of Knights, as the knights (Swedish: riddare) belong to the higher ranks of the Swedish nobility, sometimes also together with titles as count (Swedish: Greve) and baron (Swedish: friherre). All esquires are also represented in the corporation (most of the families, so called untitled nobility, Swedish: obetitlad adel). This is a tradition from the Middle Ages when Sweden during the Kalmar Union only had one knight: Sten Sture.

Between the 17th and the 19th century the House of Nobility was a chamber in the Estates of the realm, and as such, a Swedish equivalent to the British House of Lords.

In the 18th century, the building was often used for public concerts. From 1731, public concerts were performed here by Kungliga Hovkapellet. Elisabeth Olin is believed to have debuted here in the 1750s, and foreign artists performed such as Elisabetta Almerighi, Giovanni Ansani (1772) and Rosa Scarlatti.

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