Riddarholmen is a small island immediately west of Gamla Stan, joined to it by a short bridge. Its central building, Riddarholmskyrkan, is a former monastery church that became the burial place of Swedish monarchs from the seventeenth century onward, chosen because an earlier king was already buried there and successors followed the precedent for more than 300 years.
Where exactly is Riddarholmen, and how do you get there?
Riddarholmen sits in a narrow channel between Gamla Stan and Kungsholmen, separated from the older island by the Riddarholmskanalen and reached on foot across Riddarholmsbron. It is small enough to cross in a few minutes and carries almost no shops, hotels or restaurants — the island’s buildings are court, government and church property rather than commercial premises, which is part of why it feels so much quieter than Gamla Stan just across the water.
The western edge of the island opens onto Riddarfjärden, the bay of Lake Mälaren that separates it from Kungsholmen and Stadshuset, Stockholm’s City Hall. A public terrace on this side, known locally as Evert Taubes terrass after the Swedish troubadour commemorated there, gives an open view across the water — one of the few informal, publicly accessible spots on an island otherwise given over to institutions.
What is Riddarholmskyrkan, and how old is it?
Riddarholmskyrkan began not as a royal church but as the church of a Franciscan friary, founded on the island in the late thirteenth century by King Magnus Ladulås. The friars gave the island its earlier name, Gråmunkeholmen — “the grey friars’ islet” — before it was renamed Riddarholmen (“the knights’ islet”) in the seventeenth century, once noble families started building palaces there.
Magnus Ladulås, who founded the friary, was buried inside it after his death in 1290, making his tomb the earliest royal burial on the site. When the monastery was dissolved during the Swedish Reformation in the 1520s, the church building survived and was repurposed, first as a garrison and parish church, later as something closer to a state mausoleum.
Why did the church become the royal burial place?
The decisive moment came with the death of Gustav II Adolf at the Battle of Lützen in 1632. His body was returned to Stockholm and interred at Riddarholmskyrkan two years later, and that single burial set the pattern nearly every subsequent monarch followed for the next three centuries. Once a reigning king was buried there, the church’s status as the dynasty’s resting place became difficult for later rulers to break with, and it hardened into an unwritten rule of state.
The church stopped functioning as an ordinary parish church in the early nineteenth century, when its congregation was folded into that of Storkyrkan, Stockholm’s cathedral inside Gamla Stan. From that point on, Riddarholmskyrkan had no regular congregation of its own — its role narrowed to state funerals, memorial services and the maintenance of the royal graves.
Which kings and queens are buried there?
Burials span roughly from Gustav II Adolf’s interment in 1634 through to 1950, covering most of the intervening Swedish monarchs and several consorts. Notable graves include Karl XII, killed on campaign in Norway in 1718, and the founder of the current royal house, Karl XIV Johan — the French-born Jean Bernadotte, whose dynasty has occupied the Swedish throne since 1818.
The last monarch actually buried in the church was Gustaf V, who died in 1950. Later members of the royal family have instead been buried at the Royal Cemetery at Haga, north of the city, which the Swedish Royal Court’s own materials describe as the burial ground now used for the reigning house. Riddarholmskyrkan’s royal graves are therefore a closed sequence rather than an ongoing one — no monarch has been added there in over seventy years.
What do the burial chapels actually look like?
Rather than a single crypt, the church holds several distinct burial chapels built for different branches of the royal family at different times. The Caroline chapel (Karolinska gravkoret) holds Karl XII and members of his era; the Bernadotte chapel (Bernadotteska gravkoret), added in the mid-nineteenth century, holds Karl XIV Johan and his successors. Each chapel was built and decorated separately, so the church reads less like one memorial than a set of family vaults joined under a shared roof.
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Above the burial chapels, the church’s walls and ceiling are lined with metal coats of arms — the escutcheons (vapensköldar) of knights of the Order of the Seraphim, Sweden’s highest order of chivalry. Statens fastighetsverk, the Swedish National Property Board that maintains the building, notes that hanging a knight’s escutcheon in the church at their death remains a living tradition, so new shields are still added even though no new royal burials take place.
The building’s most recognisable exterior feature, the openwork cast-iron spire, is a nineteenth-century replacement. The original steeple was destroyed by fire, and the lattice spire that stands today — visible from much of central Stockholm — dates from the rebuilding that followed.
What else is on Riddarholmen besides the church?
The island’s other buildings are almost entirely former noble palaces converted to public use. Wrangelska palatset, a seventeenth-century palace, has housed Svea hovrätt — the Svea Court of Appeal, one of Sweden’s oldest courts — since the eighteenth century. Stenbockska palatset, another seventeenth-century residence, is now used for government offices. Near the church stands Birger Jarls torn, a fragment of a medieval defensive tower that predates most of the surrounding buildings and hints at the island’s earlier fortified role guarding the approach to the city.
- Riddarholmskyrkan — the former monastery church and royal burial church
- Wrangelska palatset — seat of the Svea Court of Appeal
- Stenbockska palatset — seventeenth-century palace, now government offices
- Birger Jarls torn — remains of a medieval tower
- Evert Taubes terrass — a public terrace and viewpoint on the island’s western shore
Can visitors go inside today?
Riddarholmskyrkan is not run as a working parish church but is opened seasonally to the public, typically only during the summer months, and it is not part of the standard year-round museum circuit the way the Royal Palace or Storkyrkan are. Because opening dates and any admission charge can change from year to year, readers should confirm current details directly with the Swedish Royal Court or Statens fastighetsverk before planning a visit around it, rather than relying on a fixed schedule here.
The rest of the island is public street and quayside space and can be walked at any time, even when the church itself is closed. There is no ticketed entry to Riddarholmen as a whole — only to the church interior, on the days it operates.
How does Riddarholmen fit into the rest of Gamla Stan and Stockholm?
Riddarholmen is often treated as an extension of Gamla Stan rather than a destination on its own, and geographically that is accurate — it sits directly off the older island’s western tip. But functionally the two are quite different. Gamla Stan holds the Royal Palace, Storkyrkan, and Stortorget, the square at the historic centre of the medieval city, along with dense commercial streets. Riddarholmen has none of that; it is institutional and largely residential-free, which is exactly why the royal graves and a national court ended up there rather than amid the shops of the old town.
For anyone tracing Stockholm’s medieval layer more broadly, the Medeltidsmuseet, built around remains of the city’s original defensive wall, gives useful context for how fortified and monastic islands like Riddarholmen related to the walled town beside them. Both the church and the neighbouring court buildings are covered, alongside other major landmarks, in the Landmarks & Sights section, and Riddarholmen’s place within the wider old-town area is discussed further in the Neighbourhoods archive.
Access Stockholm is an independent guide written from published, checkable sources. We have not visited the places described here and we do not publish personal recommendations or invented ‘local favourites’ — where something is singled out as notable, we say who says so. Opening times, fares, closures and prices change at short notice, so treat everything here as a starting point and confirm with the museum, operator or venue directly before building a day around it. We give no advice on visas, insurance, health or safety; use your own government’s official guidance for those.
Featured image: Photo by Matti Blume, source, CC BY-SA 4.0
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