Experience Stockholm’s 1700s and early 1800s

Start . Nationalmuseum
End: Riddarhustorget
Distance: approx. 1.5 km
Duration: 1–1.5 hours
Theme: Axel von Fersen the Younger – nobleman, royal marshal, charmer, and ultimately the victim of mob violence. Was he Marie Antoinette’s lover? Could he be the father of Louis XVII?

Content & Route

Stops & Short Highlights

Start: Nationalmuseum, Blasieholmen

  • View the miniature portrait of young Axel, painted in London in 1778.
  • There is a DNA connection to Marie Antoinette – but who was the son’s father?
  • Fersen interpreted for George Washington during the American War of Independence.

Stop 2 – Fersenska Palace, Södra Blasieholmshamnen

  • Childhood home of Axel. His father was a war hero & political figure.
  • The palace is said to have hidden great wealth from the French royal family.
  • Fersen’s sister Sophie Piper fled disguised as a maid after his lynching in 1810.

Stop 3 – Karl XII’s Square

  • Formerly the site of the Makalös Palace and later the Arsenal Theatre.
  • 1791: Lavish party in Vauxhall (Kungsträdgården) – a PR attempt for a French rescue operation that never happened.
  • Fersen returned to Sweden after political disappointment in Paris.

Stop 4 – Jacobs Church

  • Here King Gustav III passed en route to his 1772 coup.
  • Nearby, salons and shops were filled with court gossip and science (Eva Ekeblad, etc.).
  • The Fersen circle was full of passions, intrigue, and politics.

Stop 5 – Gustav Adolfs Square

  • Location of Hotel Rydberg, where witnesses to Fersen’s murder were questioned.
  • Arvfurstens Palace: the site of many court intrigues, romances, and scandals.
  • Gustav III’s opera house was here – also the king’s place of death in 1792.

Stop 6 – Norrbro & Helgeandsholmen

  • Site of Gustav III’s triumphal march on revolution day, 1772.
  • Medieval passages supposedly led from the royal stables to the palace.
  • On Lejonbacken: the ballroom where the king misled rivals before the coup.

Finish: Riddarhustorget

  • 1810: Axel von Fersen was lynched by a mob – accused of poisoning Crown Prince Karl August.
  • The same place where Gustav III’s murderer Anckarström was publicly whipped in 1792.
  • A historic square charged with political violence and personal tragedy.

Tips

  • Use Google Maps links for each stop to follow the route.
  • Take breaks in Kungsträdgården or by the water.
  • Deepen your experience by watching films like Marie Antoinette (by Coppola) or reading biographies of Fersen and Gustav III.

Fact or Myth – Fersen and Marie Antoinette:
Fersen and Marie Antoinette met young, wrote letters all their lives, and were probably romantically involved – many historians interpret their letters as proof of an intimate affair, though definitive evidence is lacking.
Rumors claimed Fersen fathered Louis XVII, but officially Louis XVI is named as the father and no conclusive DNA test has settled the matter.
Fersen was central in the attempted escape of the royal family during the French Revolution, staying loyal to the end.
Fersen ultimately died dramatically, killed by a mob outside Riddarhuset in 1810.

/ By Ingemar Lindmark