The Royal Stables () is the

mews A mews is a row or courtyard of stables and carriage houses with living quarters above them, built behind large city houses before motor vehicles replaced horses in the early twentieth century. Mews are usually located in desirable residential ...

(i.e. combined

stable A stable is a building in which working animals are kept, especially horses or oxen. The building is usually divided into stalls, and may include storage for equipment and feed. Styles There are many different types of stables in use tod ...

s and

carriage house A ''carriage house'', also called a ''remise'' or ''coach house'', is a term used in North America to describe an outbuilding that was originally built to house horse-drawn carriages and their related tack. Carriage houses were often two ...

) of the

Swedish Monarchy The monarchy of Sweden is centred on the monarchical head of state of Sweden,See the Instrument of Government, Chapter 1, Article 5. by law a constitutional and hereditary monarchy with a parliamentary system.Parliamentary system: see the Ins ...

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

Stockholm Palace Stockholm Palace, or the Royal Palace, ( or ) is the official residence and major royal palace of the Swedish monarch (King Carl XVI Gustaf and Queen Silvia use Drottningholm Palace as their usual residence). Stockholm Palace is in Stadsholm ...

. The Royal Stables are today located just behind

Strandvägen Strandvägen () is a street on Östermalm in central Stockholm, Sweden. Completed just in time for the Stockholm World's Fair 1897, it quickly became known as one of the most prestigious addresses in town. Stretching 1 km (3.500 ft) ...

Östermalm Östermalm (; "Eastern city-borough") is a 2.56 km2 large district in central Stockholm, Sweden. With 71,802 inhabitants, it is one of Sweden's most populous and exclusive districts. It is an extremely expensive area, having the highest ho ...

in central

Stockholm Stockholm (; ) is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in Sweden by population, most populous city of Sweden, as well as the List of urban areas in the Nordic countries, largest urban area in the Nordic countries. Approximately ...

, Sweden. The head of the Royal Stables is the

Crown Equerry The Crown Equerry is the operational head of the Royal Mews of the Royal Household of the Monarch, Sovereign of the United Kingdom. As executive head of the Royal Mews Department, he is responsible for the provision of vehicular transport for the ...

. The Royal Stables are open to the public through guided tours. Around 50 horse-drawn

carriage A carriage is a two- or four-wheeled horse-drawn vehicle for passengers. In Europe they were a common mode of transport for the wealthy during the Roman Empire, and then again from around 1600 until they were replaced by the motor car around 1 ...

s, sleighs and

coaches Coach may refer to: Guidance/instruction * Coach (sport), a director of Athletes' training and activities * Coaching, the practice of guiding an individual through a process ** Acting coach, a teacher who trains performers Transportation * Coac ...

are kept there, together with the cars of the royal family and about 20 horses.

History

Early history

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 Gustav Eriksson Vasa (12 May 1496 – 29 September 1560), also known as Gustav I, was King of Sweden from 1523 until his death in 1560. He was previously self-recognised Protector of the Realm (''Reichsverweser#Sweden, Riksföreståndare'') fr ...

. Relatively quickly, however, these stables became inadequate and were moved to larger premises not far from Saint James's Church on the site of the present

Royal Swedish Opera Royal Swedish Opera () is an opera and ballet company based in Stockholm, Sweden. Location and environment The building is located in the centre of Sweden's capital, Stockholm, in the borough of Norrmalm (borough), Norrmalm, on the eastern si ...

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 Count Nicodemus Tessin the Younger (23 May 1654 – 10 April 1728) was a Swedish Baroque architect, city planner, and administrator. The son of Nicodemus Tessin the Elder and the father of Carl Gustaf Tessin, Tessin the Younger was the midd ...

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.

Modern history

In the 1870s, plans were made to build a

Parliament House Parliament House may refer to: Meeting places of parliament Australia * Parliament House, Canberra, Parliament of Australia * Parliament House, Adelaide, Parliament of South Australia * Parliament House, Brisbane, Parliament of Queensland * P ...

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 The asterisk ( ), from Late Latin , from Ancient Greek , , "little star", is a Typography, typographical symbol. It is so called because it resembles a conventional image of a star (heraldry), heraldic star. Computer scientists and Mathematici ...

style, were Ernst Jacobsson and Fritz Eckert. The present buildings were finished in 1894. They originally contained space for 90 horses and 160 vehicles.

Duties

The main duties of the Royal Stables are to provide the Royal Family with transport. Horse-drawn carriages are used for ceremonial occasions, but the stables also contain cars for the royal family. Apart from these duties, the stables also have the responsibility of displaying its cultural heritage to the public, e.g. through guided tours.

Horses and carriages

The stables contain around 20 horses, all bay in colour. While their physical appearance is important — the horses must also be around tall and "with an attractive

gait Gait is the pattern of Motion (physics), movement of the limb (anatomy), limbs of animals, including Gait (human), humans, during Animal locomotion, locomotion over a solid substrate. Most animals use a variety of gaits, selecting gait based on s ...

" — they also need to have a steady temperament and are trained substantially to be able to cope with working in a busy city environment. They receive two years initial training after they are bought by the stables (at an age of between five and seven years) and are thereafter also trained daily on

Djurgården Djurgården ( or ) or, more officially, , is an island in central Stockholm, Sweden. Djurgården is home to historical buildings and monuments, museums, galleries, the amusement park Gröna Lund, the open-air museum Skansen, the small resident ...

. The stables contain around 50 different carriages, sleighs and coaches. The State Coach, also called the Glass Coach, dates from 1897 and is the most elaborate of these. It is used at the ceremonial opening of the parliament and on formal state visits by other heads of state during bad weather (in fair weather an open carriage is used). The coaches at the stable range in age from the mid-19th century to the early 20th century.

Cars

The stables also contain about 20 cars used by the royal court. Among these are a 1950 Daimler

Limousine A limousine ( or ), or limo () for short, is a large, chauffeur-driven luxury vehicle with a partition between the driver compartment and the passenger compartment which can be operated mechanically by hand or by a button electronically. A luxu ...

DS420 and a

Cadillac Fleetwood The Cadillac Fleetwood is a Luxury car#Luxury saloon / full-size luxury sedan, full-size luxury sedan that was marketed by Cadillac from the 1977 through 1996 model years. Taking its nameplate from a coachbuilder historically associated with the ...

from 1969. The other cars are mostly modern and intended for daily use; around 6,000 transport missions are carried out with cars by the Royal Stables every year. The Royal Stables has a pronounced ambition to invest in cars with a low environmental impact.

Gallery

References

External links

* {{coord, 59, 19, 58.3, N, 18, 04, 43.32, E, type:landmark_region:SE, display=title Stables Tourist attractions in Stockholm Monarchy of Sweden 1530s establishments in Sweden 1535 establishments in Europe