The Attingham Study Programme 2026 – Sweden: Stockholm and its hinterland

This intensive seven-day course will study the patronage of successive Swedish royal dynasties and that of the nobility and wealthy merchant class, in Stockholm’s palaces and the castles and country houses of its hinterland – Svealand, the nation’s historic core. With earlier outliers, it will focus on the arts and architecture of the mid 17th to early 19th centuries, encompassing the Baroque, Rococo, neo-Classical and ‘Empire’ styles. For more than a hundred years, from the accession of Gustavus Adolphus in 1611 to its loss of territory at the end of the Great Northern War in 1721, Sweden was a European military superpower and enjoyed an ‘Age of Greatness’, its fortunes reflected in the richness of buildings, interiors and collections of fine and decorative arts, particularly those of the monarchy. A new political compact with power-sharing between government and parliament – the so-called ‘Age of Liberty’ – subsequently encouraged a flowering of the arts and sciences and the further influence of all things French. During the following ‘Gustavian Age’, led by the energetic but latterly autocratic, Gustav III, Sweden’s elegant interpretation of neo-Classicism reached its apogee.

In Stockholm, visits will be made to the Riddarhuset, Riddarholmskyrkan, the Royal Palace, and Gustav III’s Museum of Antiquities. Outside Stockholm, in addition to a number of private houses, visits will include, Tullgarns Palace, Drottningholm Palace, Svartsjö Palace, the English landscape park at Haga, Rosersberg Palace, Svindersvik a summer residence, Gripsholm Castle, the manor house at Grönsöo and Skokloster Castle. For the last two nights we will be staying in the town of Mariefred on the south-west tip of Lake Mälaren.

Image: The Hall of Mirrors, Gustav III’s Pavilion at Haga Park. The Royal Palaces, Sweden. Photography Credit: © Jens Markus Lindhe.