Royal Stables (Sweden)

The Royal Stables (Swedish: Kungliga Hovstallet) is the mews (i.e. combined stables and carriage house) of the Swedish Monarchy which provides both the ceremonial transport for the Swedish Royal Family during state events and festive occasions and their everyday transportation capacity. The Royal Stables date from 1535, and were originally built on Helgeandsholmen, close to . The Royal Stables are today located just behind Strandvägen in Östermalm in central , Sweden. The head of the Royal Stables is the Crown Equerry.

The Royal Stables are open to the public through guided tours. Around 50 horse-drawn carriages, sleighs and coaches are kept there, together with the cars of the royal family and about 20 horses.

The first royal stables were located on Helgeandsholmen, close to . The first known buildings dedicated to the horses of the King were built in 1535 during the rule of Gustav Vasa. Relatively quickly, however, these stables became inadequate and were moved to larger premises not far from on the site of the present Royal Swedish Opera house. During the reign of King Charles XI, however, the stables moved back to Helgeandsholmen. The new stables were built to the design of Nicodemus Tessin the Younger and included an armoury, a riding hall, and a coach house, in addition to stables for the horses. In 1696 the building was destroyed by a fire, and Tessin designed a new building that was built on the same site soon thereafter. These stables had room for 150 horses and were significantly more modern and spacious than their predecessor. The stables would remain in this location for almost two centuries.

In the 1870s, plans were made to build a and a National Bank on Helgeandsholmen. The owner of the stables, King Oscar II offered to give the land for this purpose if another location could be found for the stables. The Swedish government offered a substantial sum of money and proposed to build the new stables at their current location. Architects of the new buildings, built in a Medievalist style, were Ernst Jacobsson and Fritz Eckert. The present buildings were finished in 1894. They originally contained space for 90 horses and 160 vehicles.

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Wikipedia