Tre Kronor (castle)

Tre Kronor
The castle in a painting from 1661 by Govert Dircksz Camphuysen.
General information
Town or city
Country	Sweden
Construction started	13th century
Demolished	1697 (fire)

Tre Kronor (Swedish pronunciation: [ˈtreː ˈkruːˈnʊr], Three Crowns) was a castle located in , Sweden, on the site where is today. It is believed to have been a citadel that Birger Jarl built into a royal castle in the middle of the 13th century. The name "Tre Kronor" is believed to have been given to the castle during the reign of King Magnus IV in the middle of the 14th century.

Most of Sweden's national library and royal archives were destroyed when the castle burned down in 1697, making the country's early history unusually difficult to document.

When King Gustav Vasa broke Sweden free from the Kalmar Union (a series of personal unions between Denmark, Sweden and Norway since 1397) and made Sweden independent again, Tre Kronor Castle became his most important royal seat. Gustav Vasa expanded the castle's defensive measures, while his son John III of Sweden later rebuilt and improved the castle aesthetically, turning it into a renaissance style castle and adding a castle church.

The keep may have existed previous to the 16th century, but in a much smaller form than on the pictures from the beginning and end of the 16th and 17th centuries. The tower was then about the half of the height in the end of the 16th century. The castle consisted of two parts, the main castle (högborgen) and the walled in gardens surrounding it (ekonomigården) with the high tower in the middle.

On May 7, 1697 a large fire broke out in Tre Kronor that completely demolished the majority of this now more-than-400-year-old castle. The fire was discovered by the castle's keeper, Georg Stiernhoff. The fire marshal, Sven Lindberg, informed the royal staff that he could not get to the fire extinguishing equipment because the fire blocked his access to it. The royal family and court were forced to evacuate the castle. The servants attempted to save as much as possible of the royal possessions. The fire spread quickly to all parts of the castle. Since the castle was made out of wood and copper, the hot copper plates set the roof on fire. As mentioned, due to the fire most of Sweden's national library and royal archives were destroyed.