Lejonkulan

Lejonkulan (In English: The Lion's Den), was a historical theatre in , Sweden, active in 1667–89. It's the historically second known theatre establishment of Stockholm, after Björngårdsteatern (1640–55).

Lejonkulan was a building down in and over the partly dry moat at the south corner of the royal palace Tre Kronor. From 1648, it was commonly known by the name "Lejonkulan" ("The Lion's Den"), because a lion, a tribute from the storming of Prague during the Thirty Years War, was kept there during the reign of Queen Christina of Sweden. It was constructed with a stable for the lion, an apartment for its retainer, and spectators galleries around an arena: during the coronation of Christina, the lion was made to fight other animals in it.

The lion died in 1663. It was thereafter used as a riding hall for Charles XI and a storage for the castle armories. Just like two other buildings nearer the palace, the Little Bollhuset and the Great Bollhuset, it was occasionally used by the various foreign theater companies performing in Stockholm in the 17th-century, where there was not yet any professional native theater. Lejonkulan as a theatre has therefore often been confused with Bollhuset Theatre, in turn confused between Stora Bollhuset and Lilla Bollhuset, as the three buildings were all on and off used for theatrical performances Stockholm in parallel during the same period.

Research has proven Lejonkulan to have been a very large building, and the painting by Govert Camphuysen from 1661 depicting it as small has been deemed not to have been proportionate.

In 1667, Lejonkulan was redecorated and inaugurated as a theater by the Dutch theater company of Jan Baptista van Fornenbergh, who signed a contract to perform annually for the Swedish royal court the same year. Foreign theater companies were hired to perform for the court, often from France, Germany and the Netherlands, as Sweden did not have any theater tradition and therefore no native actors. Among the companies performing where those of Johann Christoffer Loner 1662-64 and 1668–69, Johann August Ulich 1668 in and 1696–97, David Müllstreich 1686-87 and 1691, and Sebastiano di Scio in 1688-89 and 1695-96. Because both Lejonkulan and the two Bollhus theaters were used as theater localities at the same time, there are confusion as in exactly which building they performed while visiting Stockholm.

...
Wikipedia