What Is Uppsala, and What Is in the Cathedral?

Uppsala is a city of around 240,000 people roughly 70 kilometres north of Stockholm, built on the Fyrisån river in the province of Uppland. It is home to Sweden’s oldest university and to the Archbishop of the Church of Sweden, and its cathedral — Uppsala domkyrka — is the largest church in Scandinavia and the burial place of a king, a saint’s relics, and the naturalist Carl Linnaeus.

Where is Uppsala, and why does it matter to Stockholm’s story?

Uppsala sits north of Stockholm along the main rail corridor toward Gävle and northern Sweden. It predates Stockholm as a centre of power: the older settlement of Gamla Uppsala, a few kilometres from the modern centre, was a pre-Christian assembly and burial site with large earthen mounds traditionally associated with early Swedish kings. When Christianity took hold, the church and later the university moved to the present-day city, and Uppsala became the ecclesiastical and academic counterweight to Stockholm’s royal and commercial power.

Uppsala University was founded in 1477, making it the oldest university in the Nordic countries, and it still shapes the city’s rhythm — student traditions, the Carolina Rediviva library, and a population skewed younger than Stockholm’s. The city is reachable as a day trip; regional and commuter services run from Stockholm Central, and the route is covered in general terms in the site’s guide to reaching Swedish cities by train from Stockholm. Journey times and operators change, so current schedules should be checked on the relevant operator’s own site rather than assumed from a guidebook.

What is Uppsala Cathedral?

Uppsala Cathedral (Uppsala domkyrka) is a Gothic cathedral begun in the late 13th century and consecrated in 1435, built largely in French-influenced Gothic style with brick construction typical of northern European churches of the period. Its twin spires make it the tallest church building in Scandinavia, and by floor area it is generally described as the largest cathedral in the Nordic region. It has been the seat of the Archbishop of Uppsala — the senior bishop of the Church of Sweden — since the archdiocese was established in the 12th century, when the seat moved from the older cathedral at Gamla Uppsala.

For centuries it also served as the coronation church of Swedish monarchs; that role later shifted toward Stockholm, where coronations and royal ceremony are more associated with the Royal Palace. Uppsala Cathedral has been damaged by fire more than once, notably in 1702, and much of its current interior dates from a major restoration completed in 1893. It remains an active parish and cathedral church of the Church of Sweden, not a museum piece kept for display.

Early morning light over the archipelago on the approach to Stockholm — Photo by Bin im Garten, source, CC BY-SA 3.0

Who is buried in Uppsala Cathedral?

The cathedral’s most prominent grave belongs to King Gustav Vasa, who ruled Sweden in the 16th century and is credited with breaking the country from the Kalmar Union and establishing the Vasa royal line. He is buried in a dedicated chapel — the Vasa Chapel — along with his three wives, under a Renaissance-style monument that is one of the cathedral’s set-piece interiors.

Other notable burials include:

Carl Linnaeus, the 18th-century botanist and taxonomist whose system for naming species is still in use, and who taught at Uppsala University.
Nathan Söderblom, Archbishop of Uppsala in the early 20th century and winner of the Nobel Peace Prize.
Various other bishops, archbishops and historical figures connected to the university and the Swedish church.

This concentration of royal and scholarly graves under one roof is unusual for a working cathedral, and it is one reason the building is treated as a national monument as much as a place of worship. Readers comparing it to Stockholm’s own royal burial church may find it useful to look at what Riddarholmen is and why Swedish monarchs are buried there, since the two buildings represent different phases of where the monarchy chose to be interred.

What relics and treasures does the cathedral hold?

Uppsala Cathedral holds a silver reliquary shrine associated with Erik IX, known as Saint Erik, a 12th-century Swedish king who became the country’s most widely recognised (though never formally canonised by Rome) patron saint. The shrine and its associated relics are displayed within the cathedral and are among the few surviving medieval reliquary objects in Sweden, most of which were lost or melted down during the Reformation.

The cathedral museum, referred to as the Treasury (Skattkammaren), holds a collection of ecclesiastical textiles, vestments and royal-related objects, including medieval textile fragments that are rare survivals of Swedish medieval craft. As with most cathedral treasuries, access to specific rooms and objects can vary by season and by ongoing conservation work, so current opening arrangements should be confirmed on the cathedral’s own site before a visit is planned.

Readers interested in how Stockholm’s own cathedral compares — smaller, older in continuous use as the city’s parish church, and tied to different royal ceremony — can see what Storkyrkan is and what’s inside Stockholm’s cathedral for the equivalent building within the city itself.

What else is in Uppsala worth knowing about?

Uppsala’s centre is compact and organised around the cathedral, Uppsala Castle on its hill above the river, and the university district. Uppsala Castle was begun by Gustav Vasa in the 16th century as both a royal residence and a show of authority over the church below it — a deliberate architectural statement, since the castle looks down on the cathedral rather than the other way round.

The university’s Carolina Rediviva library holds the Codex Argenteus, a 6th-century silver-lettered manuscript of the Gothic Bible translation, one of the most important surviving artefacts of the Gothic language. Linnaeus’s former home and garden, Linnéträdgården, preserves a botanical garden laid out according to his own classification system and is separate from, but connected to, his grave inside the cathedral.

Gamla Uppsala, on the northern edge of the modern city, contains the burial mounds and an on-site museum covering the pre-Christian and early Christian period, and is generally treated as a separate excursion from the cathedral and castle in the centre.

How does a visit to Uppsala fit against a Stockholm trip?

Uppsala works as a single day trip from Stockholm rather than an overnight stay for most visitors, since the core sights — cathedral, castle, university library, and the old town along the river — can reasonably be covered within a day, with Gamla Uppsala as an optional add-on for anyone with more time. It sits alongside other options covered in the site’s broader look at day trips from Stockholm, which range from archipelago islands to other inland towns.

For residents, Uppsala functions differently: it is close enough for a half-day errand or a university-related visit, and many people commute between the two cities for work or study, which is part of why rail capacity on the corridor is a recurring local transport topic. Visitors planning a broader Stockholm itinerary can cross-reference Uppsala against the general planning guidance in Stockholm practical information and the landmark-by-landmark structure of the Stockholm guide, both of which set out how a day trip like this sits against time spent in the city itself. Anyone building a first look at Sweden’s landmarks more broadly may also find it useful to browse the site’s landmarks and sights archive, which covers the churches, palaces and monuments referenced throughout this piece.

Practical details — train times, cathedral opening hours, and treasury access — change with the season and with ongoing restoration work, so they are best confirmed directly with Uppsala Cathedral, Uppsala University, and the relevant train operator ahead of any specific date.