Karlberg Palace

Karlberg Palace
Main building, south façade.
General information
Architectural style	Neo Classicism
Town or city	Solna
Country	Sweden
Construction started	1634
Completed	1795
Client	Carl Carlsson Gyllenhielm, Magnus Gabriel de la Gardie
Owner	The State
Landlord	Swedish Fortifications Agency
Design and construction
Architect	Carl Christoffer Gjörwell, Louis Jean Desprez (1791-93), Jean de la Vallée (1670-80)

Karlberg Palace is a palace by the Karlberg Canal in Solna Municipality in Sweden, adjacent to 's district. The palace, built in 1630, today houses the Military Academy Karlberg.

In the park are found, among other things, a "temple of Diana" (originally dedicated to Neptune) and the burial site of Pompe, the dog of King Charles XII.

Notwithstanding the palace remain a military institution, the park is accessible to the public and is open daily between 6 AM and 10 PM.

Three medieval villages at the location — Ösby, Bolstomta, and Lundby — were bought by Lord High Admiral Carl Carlsson Gyllenhielm (1574-1650) in the 1620s and subsequently unified into a single estate named "Karlberg" after himself. He then had master mason Hans Drisell build a Renaissance palace featuring pink plaster and tall gables.

As Gyllenhielm's widow died six years after her husband, a lengthy litigation regarding the inheritance followed. Plans in the mid-1660s to transfer the estate to the widowed Queen Hedwig Eleonora were cancelled as Lord High Admiral Magnus Gabriel De la Gardie (1622-1686) sold one of his palaces to the queen (today Ulriksdal Palace, also in Solna) and bought Karlberg from the heir of his precursor in 1669.

De la Gardie, at this time one of the most influential men in Sweden, had Jean de la Vallée (1620–1696) develop the palace into one of the grandest in Sweden. The new palace, H-shaped in plan in accordance to the style of the day, featured two wings and a terrace facing the waterfront, while wings facing north formed an enclosed courtyard. Additionally, a church was created in the eastern wing. Some of the red festoon stucco ornaments from this era are preserved in the façade, as are the curved cornices facing the garden, and the sumptuous stucco ceilings of Carlo Carove together with other exclusive interior details, including walls covered in leather, velvet, and boiseries. The park was furnished with an orangery, ponds, fountains, parterres, and boxwood patterns - all in the manner of French Baroque architecture.