From the National Museum to the House of Knights. 1.5 km.
From the National Museum to the House of Knights. 1.5 km.
March 27, 1785. Then Queen Marie Antoinette gives birth to a son, named Louis Charles. As king called Louis XVII. He died in prison, perhaps murdered, at the age of ten. Who is the father , Louis XVI or Count Axel von Fersen d. y? Officially Louis XVI is the father but his diary fed the gossip: ”The Queen has given birth today with the Duke of Normandy. Everything happened the same as when my son was born” . Is the nickname Duke of Normandy a tribute to a representative of the former Viking kingdom? Axel von Fersen the younger?
Exactly nine months earlier, Louis and Marie Anoinette had thrown a lavish party for Gustaf III and his traveling companion Axel von Fersen. At the Petit Trianon ( #Gmap ) the party had enjoyed themselves more freely than court etiquette dictated. Without a doubt, a possible rift between Fersen and the queen was set in stone.
After the young nobleman returned from the American War of Independence, he commanded the Royal Swedish Regiment in Paris – where he was seen in the presence of the Queen . A passionate love affair was revealed in the exchange of letters.
Coppola’s film Marie Antoinette romanticizes the acquaintance. In our time, Fersen would probably have been called a sex addict. Because he was a hit with the women of the court, even in Sweden. According to rumor, he had an affair with Duchess Hedvig Elisabeth Charlotta , married to Gustav III’s brother Karl; as king with number XIII.
Stop 1. National Museum, Blasieholmen
1775-1783.In August 2023, the Nationalmuseum will unveil a new acquisition, a miniature painting by Axel von Fersen – painted in London in 1778 by an English artist. Axel is 23 years old and has been learning the language for six months. He has known French since childhood. During his three years in the military in the American War of Independence, he interpreted, among others, for future President George Washington.
Fersen bears a striking resemblance to a blue-eyed Louis Charles, in this painting likely ravaged by neglect and tuberculosis. DNA testing of his preserved heart proves kinship with Marie Antoinette. No test has been done to reveal the father, Louis XVI or Axel. (More Fersen portraits at the museum). May 1810
1772 06 19Axel von Fersen, then a field marshal, becomes a councillor after Gustav III’s coup d’état. But leaves the post after six months.
From the National Museum it is not many steps to Skeppsholmsbron. In Fersen’s time a drawbridge to the navy facility.
At the bridgehead, Carl Michael Bellman practiced the officers singing the newly written Gustav’s toast . As the king heard when he arrived riding in the evening on the day of the coup, August 19, 1772.
1771-1772.Axel Fersen Junior, 17 years old, has met the philosopher Voltaire in Switzerland and during his Grand Tour on his way to Italy. Field Marshal Fersen then becomes a councilor after the coup d’état but later resigns after failing to unify hats and caps.
- 1. Grand hotel , built in 1864.
- 2. During World War II, the German legation .
- 3. In the now demolished Pechlin Palace at the mouth of Hovslagargatan, the former general Carl Fredrik Pechlin lived. There, during a dinner in 1792, he hatched the plan to assassinate Gustav III . Together with Counts Adolph Ribbing, Claes Horn and Captain Anckarström
Stop 2. Fersenska Palace, Södra Blasieholmshamnen
1799Back to Sweden in 1799, Axel von Fersen moves to the palace at Blasieholmshamne n. Together with his sister Eva Sophie Piper , widow of Evert Taube for five years. She also has an amorous past. The long friendship with Duke Karl’s wife Hedvig Elisabet Charlotta is at that time overturned, because Eva Sophie focuses on housekeeping for her brother. ( Her portrait at the National Museum).
The siblings lived in the palace as children with their parents, the Reichsrat Axel von Fersen the Elder and his wife Hedvig Catharina Charlotta de la Gardie . Little Axel was already quite intelligent, knew French early and Latin at the age of seven. At a time when his father Axel v. Fersen came home as a war hero after three years in the Pomeranian War .
Axel senior belonged to the Hatters and was a councillor. He owned part of the East India Company. Thanks to his wealth, he was able to renovate the palace, which had been built by Queen Christina’s royal stablemaster Hans Wachtmeister (Fersen’s grandfather’s father). As a palace, it was modest in the shadow of Makalös, but Wachtmeister’s property included an entire city district with annexes and green spaces . A master builder modernised the building at the end of the 19th century. Although Handelsbanken carefully renovated it, only the terrace and remains of the towers bear witness to its origins.
After 1807. Elias Martin’s painting at the National Museum shows von Fersen’s view from the Terrace. With the palace where he rules as Marshal of the Realm and where his sister Sophie Peter visits her friend the Queen. In the middle is Helgeandsholmen, where you can see the court stables and the tall Per Brahe house. At the northern foot of the new stone bridge is the Hereditary Prince’s Palace. Beyond Gustav Adolf’s Square, then Norrmalmstorget, you can see the Opera House, widely famous for the regicide. Closest, at the Royal Garden, is the Makalös Palace. Which before the fire in 1825 was a theater.
1790sIs it true that von Fersen’s inheritance from the French royal couple is buried in the vaults beneath his palace? There are rumors of a cache of 1,500 million livres from his beloved Marie Antoinette and her husband.
Fersen reveals the secret to his brother-in-law Evert Taube in January 1794 – that the money ended up with Marie’s relatives in Austria in connection with the couple’s failed escape in the summer of 1771. With Fersen as a coachman out of Paris where the escape was partly paid for with the count’s money. A money laundering operation that Fersen failed to seize during his visit to Vienna in 1795. Or…? Maybe a few million French currency are buried in the Fersen terrace.
1810 06 19. The rumor that the Royal Marshal Axel v Fersen and Sophie Piper poisoned Crown Prince Karl August is spread in slanderous publications. An angry mob has lynched the Royal Marshal on Riddarhustorget. The same fate threatens her sister, in a manuscript that is a fable called Räverskan. Disguised as a maid , Sophie sneaks out of the Fersenska Palace the night after the murder. To despite the storm in an open boat get to Vaxholm, where she seeks shelter in the fortress.
Stop 3. Karl XII’s Square, Strömgatan.
Closest to the Royal Garden was the still-extant Makalös Palace – created by Queen Christina’s favourite Magnus del la Gardie. Also on the maternal side, the ancestor of Axel von Fersen dy After years as a military warehouse, the Arsenalen was converted by Gustav III into the Arsenal Theatre. The palace was demolished after the fire in 1825.
1772In 1772, the Vauxhall entertainment venue opened in the Orangerie of the Royal Gardens for balls and concerts – exclusively for the court and nobility until the bourgeoisie was allowed in. It was inaugurated with music on June 14, 1772, two months before the king’s coup d’état.
1791. A big party in Vauxhall celebrates the return of Gustaf III’s trip to Aachen. Where he was waiting for Axel v Fersen to deliver the French royal couple . However, the escape fails in Varennes near the border crossing. The royals are guarded in the Tuileries and Fersen takes refuge in Brussels.
Or more accurately, it was a PR stunt with 6 thousand participants. Which aimed to have a Swedish-Russian military landing in Normandy, to assist Louis XVI as a counter-revolution. A D-Day that did not happen.
Disguised as a Portuguese diplomat, Fersen sneaks into the French queen’s prison. The French win the war against Austria, forcing Fersen to return home to Sweden.
Stop 3. St. James’ Church at Kungsträdgården
- Jakobs torg and the church seen from Kungsträdgården
Until the late 18th century, anyone who wanted to get from the (Old) town to Ladugårdslandet had to cross Norrmalmstorget (Gustav Adolfs torg) after the wooden bridges and pass Jakobs torg by the church. It was a central location for the trading stalls by the church. Strömgatan did not exist. De la Gardie’s buildings blocked the way towards Norrström. High, which was located, passed Arsenalsgatan. Gustav III walked here on the day of the coup in 1772 at the head of the guard parade, which he had kidnapped outside the Arsenalen warehouse, as Makalös was then called.
1670 Erik Dalhberg’s engraving in Suecia Antiqua lets us imagine the view from the church. Incomparable on the spot where Charles XII has stood since 1868. In the background behind de la Gardie’s castle: Wachtmeister’s palace (later Fersen’s). On the left the gate to the Hortus Regius, the royal garden where only the court and nobility were allowed access. Until common people were allowed in under Gustav III.
The church bears traces of late Gothic, Renaissance and Baroque. The magnificent Renaissance portals were already there when it was inaugurated in 1643. The cemetery was larger, extending over what is now Kungsträdgården.
The poet and debater Johan Henrik Kellgren, a yearling with Burman’s map from 1751, is buried here with a memorial plaque in the wall. Kellgren was a judge of taste in the academies in conflict with, among others, Thomas Thorild. Kellgren’s patron Gustav III had him write the opera Gustav Wasa , which premiered in 1786 in the newly built Gustavianska opera house on the other side of Arsenalsgatan.
1792 03 16 Six years later at a masquerade ball, the king is shot at the opera house by Captain Jacob Johan Anckarström, accompanied by conspirators Adolph Ribbing and Claes Horn.
1839The Stockholm Opera premieres The Postiljonen by Lonjumeau , followed by more operas with librettos written by the then Björn Ulvaeus, Adolphe de Leuven . Resident in Paris and son of Count Adolf Ribbing, who killed the king on the same stage.
He took the name Leuven after his grandmother Eva Löwen, who in Switzerland became good friends with her son Adolf Ribbing’s mistress Germaine de Stael. One of Europe’s most popular writers who was unhappily married to Erik Stael von Holstein – a friend of Axel v Fersen dy and allied with Gustav III since the coup d’état of 1772. Germaine was named Necker after her father, Minister of Finance Jaque Necker, when von Holstein courted a wooing Axel v Fersen dy.
Around 1770Eva Löwen had a love affair with Axel Fersen d ä in 1772, after two years the love was replaced with her son Axel. Before that she was courted by the French ambassador. She received a princely pension/bribe for doing French PR in her salons.
Mid-18th centuryAt Jakobs torg there was the Ekebladska huset before the opera was built. Eva Ekeblad , born de la Gardie, held a salon there, but without the pretensions like many others. Another tuber aroused her interests, to the point of becoming the first woman in the Academy of Sciences. Alströmer was early with the potato, but it was Eva Ekeblad who made it popular. First to make powder from the starch, better as a powder than arsenic.
Then the art of making brandy from mash . Although people drank more, more grain was saved for food. Crop failures and famine in 1771 caused discontent that may have contributed to Gustav III’s coup d’état. More people survived thanks to ”peace, the vaccine and the potatoes” as Esaias Tegnér wrote.
Evas Ekeblad’s friendship with her sister Hedvig Catharina von Fersen, mother of the younger Axel v Fersen, lasted a lifetime.
Stop 4. Gustav Adolf Square (Norrmalmstorget)
Sophia Albertina is at the top of the UD’s Hereditary Prince’s Palace. The question is whether Gustav III’s sister lived there for a particularly long time. If so, in the Torstenssonska Palace along Fredsgatan. The gate remains from the Great Power era,
Palace? Rather a jumble of housed craftsmen when Sofia Albertina took over the property in 1785. The renovation and extension towards Strömmen lasted until 1794. With room for seventy servants and the lady-in-waiting Magdalena Rudenschöl d, who thanks to her beauty was surrounded by a series of lovers. One was Duke Karl who also had an affair with Augusta von Fersen, cousin of Axel v Fersen Junior. Axel’s sister Sophi, married Piper, lived with her brother’s friend Evert Taube – whom it was rumored that Sophi had poisoned.
Sophi Piper was engaged to Duke Karl’s wife, Hedvig Elisabeth Charlotta. This duchess, later queen, reveals in a letter to Princess Sofia Albertina that she is having an affair with Carl Gustaf Piper. In 1784 it also seems to be with Axel v Fersen dy and his brother Fabian Fersen. Are you following along?
How did Magdalena Rudenschiöld do? See the answer .
Axel v Fersen was one of the princess’s bullies. She lived with her mother Lovisa Ulrika until she was thirty, was considered unusually ugly and generally reckless according to court gossip. . Her servant Gustav Badin , brought as a slave from the West Indies, was called the ”court negro” who made the princess have children. Sophia Albertina was supported by her brother Gustav III, who ensured that the palace’s facade was a reflection of the opera.
Behind the horse’s butt is the house with the Dance Museum, built as a bank palace in 1914. Which then replaced the Hotel Rydberg which in turn replaced the Kastenhof in 1856. With a tavern in the basement, official residence for the chief of the life guard and the magistrate’s court with its associated detention center. In this city’s lowest judicial instance, the witnesses to the Fersen murder in 1810 were questioned.
Gustav III did not experience much of his building dreams. Only the Opera House, completed in 1782 – where he was killed ten years later. The facade of Princess Sofia Albertina’s palace , a counterpart to the opera , was not completed until 1794. The equestrian statue of Gustav III Adolf was commissioned when Adolf Fredrik was reigning, or rather not reigning. The statue was inaugurated in 1796; not at its current location but closer to the bridgehead, instead of the demolished city guard house.
Stop 5 Norrbro Helgeandsholmen
Gustav III laid the foundation stone for the stone bridge that would replace the wooden Slaktarhus Bridge that was washed away by the spring flood in 1780. But construction was delayed. The one over Norrström was opened to traffic in 1796, the other over Söderström in 1807.
1751.The map shows the butchers’ sheds and the fishing port on stilts out towards Strömmen. On the other side of the strip on the islet, Per Brahe’s tall house and the court stables.
1772Here Gustav III marched with the guard parade on Revolution Day. The king walking, not riding, as a signal that the coup at the Artillery Yard and at the Arsenal was successful. The high guard departs towards the woodyard and the castle hill for formation in the courtyard. The king marches up the hill west of the castle.
Or could he have sneaked through the secret passage from the court stables, over the footbridge at Strömmen, up to the castle? See the entrance at the Medieval Museum before it closes for good.
1772 On the castle facade facing Lion’s Hill, at the top you can see the windows of the banquet hall where Gustav III misled with a big party the night before the coup. It is called the Karl XI Gallery and was inspired by the Hall of Mirrors in Versailles.
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Stop 6. Riddarhustorget
- Elias Martin with commerce at a market in 1790 near the House of Knights
- Ferdinand Tollin’s lithograph from 1840 depicts the place where Axel von Fersen was beaten to death at the Bondeska Palace thirty years earlier. And where Ankarström was flogged on the scaffold in front of the House of Knights in 1792
- Elias Martin with commerce at a market in 1790 near the House of Knights
- Ferdinand Tollin’s lithograph from 1840 depicts the place where Axel von Fersen was beaten to death at the Bondeska Palace thirty years earlier. And where Ankarström was flogged on the scaffold in front of the House of Knights in 1792
Ferdinand Tollin’s lithograph from 1840 depicts the place where Axel von Fersen was beaten to death at the Bondeska Palace thirty years earlier. And where Ankarström was flogged on the scaffold in front of the House of Knights in 1792
Stora Nygatan’s mouth towards Riddarhustorget to get a feel for the Fersen murder. The mood among more or less ordinary people is incited by jealous writings. The heir to the throne Karl August was poisoned by the Marshal of the Realm Axel v Fersen and other Gustavians, as we A hateful mood is noticeable among more or less ordinary people who line the street and the square, some drunk from the free alcohol distributed. The funeral procession set off from Liljeholmen.
Duke Karl shared his mistress Magdalena Rudenschöld with General Gustaf Mauritz Armfeldt , once a confidant of Gustav III. To regain Armfeldt’s love, Magdalena was his messenger to the Russians when they sought support for a coup d’état. Rudenskiöld’s spies discovered both this and her 1,000 love letters to Armfeldt (who had taken refuge in Russia).
