Stockholm’s Three Forts

The Royal Palace is Sweden’s most important castle. From here, Swedish kings have ruled the country for 800 years — but the building’s significance does not come from the architecture. It comes from the place itself.

It is hard today to imagine what this site looked like before people began reshaping it. Through SHT’s completely unique, archaeologically grounded 3D animations, we can — for the first time ever — “visit” that original environment. We start in year 1000, follow the first settlement in detail, trace the precursor to the Royal Palace, and watch the site evolve through Stockholm’s official founding in 1252 right up to the moment the Three Crowns Castle began taking shape in 1568.

The sources give us a reasonably good picture of how the place and its successive fortresses looked, including some interiors. Several corners of today’s Stockholm are still shaped by these oldest buildings.

The walk covers the years 1000 to 1568, and we will be able to:

• See and analyse the original environment of the location, as if we were in it
• See and analyse Stockholm’s three castles
• “Visit” the third castle — the direct precursor of today’s Royal Palace — exterior and partly interior
• Find the wooden log (stock) that gave us the name Stockholm
• Check out the mighty Three Crowns Tower
• Settle where the 1520 “Blood Feast” actually took place
• And much more!

What you'll see

Tap to explore the interactive map

1. 1

   Riksplan

   Meeting point. The plaza north of the Royal Palace, with a 3D look at the pre-1000 landscape as it was before anyone built here.

2. 2

   Museet Tre Kronor

   Inside the palace, the museum sits on the cellar walls of the medieval castle — the first and second forts in stone.

3. 3

   Yttre Borggården

   The Outer Courtyard, where we trace the footprint of all three successive forts on the same ground.

4. 4

   Slottskyrkan

   The Royal Chapel, part of the current palace, with traces of the medieval structures still hidden in its walls.

5. 5

   Storkyrkan

   Stockholm Cathedral — the city’s oldest building, and the square outside is where the 1520 “Blood Feast” actually took place.

From recent walks