I had a few hours this morning before I was going to be needed at the conference, so I took the subway to Stadsholmen in Gamla stan to see a few museums. I know! How unusual for me! First I went to the Nobel Museum, which is dedicated to sharing information on winners of the Nobel Prize. It showcases Novel laureates from 1901 to the present day and focuses on the life founder, Alfred Nobel (1833-1896). It is an extremely cramped little museum, and apparently, they are hoping to move it to a larger facility sometime in the future which would be good.
This was the Stock Exchange Building, before becoming the Nobel Museum. 
Around the corner is the Royal Palace – Kungliga Slottet. While the Swedish royal family actually reside now at the Drottningholm Palace, all the offices of the Royal Court of Sweden are located here, and all royal duties performed by King Carl XVI and Queen Silvia as heads of state are performed here.
The main entrance hall.
Audience chamber.
The Kungliga Slottet has been on this same site since the mid 13thC when the original Tre Kronor Castle was built, which was destroyed by a fire in 1697. The current palace was designed by a fantastically named, Nicodemus Tessin the Younger and built on the same site with construction starting in 1700. They had to stop construction apparently due to the expensive Great Northern War (Yes, you read that right, there was a Great Northern War between a Russian lead coalition and the Kingdom of Sweden!), and it was restarted again in 1727. The palace was finished in 1754 and much of the Rococo interiors were done by Carl Harleman, many of which are still as they were – there has been very little done to the Palace other than modernizing or redecorating to the tastes of subsequent royalty.
I can never get over the sheer over the top decorative features on every surface in palaces and important civic buildings from the Rococo and Baroque periods – every little nook and cranny is heavily decorated with cherubs and curlicues, the time and skill it must have taken to create these spectacles of lavish wealth and status is phenomenal… the overall visual effect is somewhat overwhelming.
The Apartments of the Orders of Chivalry
Random bit of wall panelling…
Probably affectionately refered to as the Blue Room, the Red Room and the Green Room, the Apartments of the Orders of Chivalry are decked out with displays of regalia – uniforms and fealty chains (dating from the 18th-20thC).
The detail is just astonishing!
Below is a display of every award bestowed on one Prince Bertil of Sweden, Duke of Halland and son of King Gustaf VI Adolf of Sweden and his first wife, Princess Margaret of Connaught (18 February 1912 to 5 January 1997). I guess that was the thing – bestow all the awards and favours on your family. 
I was unable to get a photo of the gold work on this vestment – it was seriously impressive though.
More crazy detail 20′ in the air. So much gilt!
Below: Fealty Chain of the Order of the Annunciation – c.1518.
The Royal Apartments and Guest Apartments:
The King’s Official Bedchamber – his actual bed chamber is behind doors somewhere, much smaller and more intimate and therefore more easily heated. The bedchambers became somewhat less formal audience chambers.
Ceiling detail:
Musian’s loft in a salon.
Familiy portrait gallery.
Guest apartment:
Main central Courtyard:
Forward circular courtyard:
Roya Chapel:
After touring the Royal Apartments, I went to the Schatzkammaran – the Royal Treasury – that is housed underneath the Royal Palace. Here, the regalia belonging to the Royal house of Sweden is kept in a museum on public display. None of the crowns or coronets have been worn by Swedish royalty since the early 1900s, but they are still used for display purposes at weddings, christenings and funerals. Unfortunately, they do not allow photos in the Treasury… so I have unashamedly stolen some from Wikipedia to show the sorts of things we were able to view:
Crown of Eric XIV, c.1561
Crown of Queen Christina of Sweden. c.1620.
Coronet and septre of the Queen Consort. c.1751.
Coronet of the Heir Apparent. c.1772
View from the Palace back towards the city.
As I was leaving a parade was coming by – there is a cultural festival on in Stockholm this week, so the inner city is full of pavilions with international food, and stages for music performances.
Then I had to come back to the hotel to do some work before heading out this evening to the formal reception at the Stockholm City Hall as part of the conference schedule.
TO BE CONTINUED…
So this evening the conference took us to a formal reception at Stockholm’s City Hall which is where the Municipal Council for Stockholm lives. It is located on the eastern end of Kungsholmen Island and contains the council chambers, conference rooms, reception centres and just happens to be the venue for the Nobel Prize banquets.
The building looks a lot older than it is – it was built only in the early 1900s, but very much looks part of the architectural heritage of Stockholm.
The formal entrance foyer is covered in large tapestries.
The Blue Room where we had our reception. They had laid on the most lavish meal with lots of salmon, pickled herrings, potato au gratin, cauliflower terrine, beets, cheeses, breads and the ubiquitous Swedish meatballs (Which we have been served every morning since we got here! Who knew meatballs were a breakfast food?!)
Ceiling detail.
View out the windows of the reception room – across to Riddarholmen and Södermalm. 
Right off the Blue Room lies the Golden Hall (Gyllene Salen), which is very aptly named for the beautiful golden decorative mosaics that line the entire walls of the expansive halls. There are over 18 million mosaic tiles in this room that have been used to create scenes from Swedish history. The mosaics were commissioned from a German firm called Puhl & Wagner and it took over nine years for the commision to be completed (1883-1941). I was blown away by the sheer beauty of the room and took so many photographs of the mosaic scenes.
The room is used after the Nobel Prize ceremonies for a ballroom, and it is not often that people can come here without being on an offical tour of the building… I was thrilled to be able to take so many pictures, and contemplate the grandeur of this place in a relatively small group. Seeing a masterpiece of decorative arts like this is always impressive – the workmanship, the creativity and the time, the sheer time that goes into making something like this is incredible.
Direclty outside the Golden Salon is a central covered courtyard that then leads around to the Stockholm Council Chambers.
It is an interesting contrast to move form a space covered literally in gilt tiles to a courtyard space that is rough hewn red brick.
The Council chambers are apparently all decorated in red – as this is the ‘beating heart’ of the city of Stockholm. The designer who created this space was particularly taken with the idea of the President of the Council being under a traditional audience/throne-like valance, but the politicians at the turn of the century with no enamoured with the idea of the President sitting ‘in state’ and looking like Royalty, so they argued with the designer to remove the regal looking valanced canopy. The designer responded creatively saying that the canopy assisted with the acoustics of the room, and that it would help the President be heard. The politicians at the time, knowing nothing of acoustics, seemed to have shrugged and and acquiesed… though it has since been tested by experts who have confirmed what we would already know – that the canopy does not have offer any benefit to the acoustics at all. Well played.
The ceiling is painted to look like the sky so the words of the elected representatives can ‘float upwards and out into the city of Stockholm’… lovely imagery, but today the cameras in the corner that live stream proceedings to the web are probably more effective than the ceiling.
What a beautiful venue. We had a lovely evening socialising with the people we have been working with this week, and after this head back to our hotel, the Hotel Birger Jarl to have a few drinks. Lots of discussion on buses and trains and taxis ensued before being able to take off my shoes (my poor little feet!) and get some sleep.