| Hotel Skeppsholmen | |
|---|---|
The two buildings of the hotel | |
| General information | |
| Town or city | Stockholm |
| Country | Sweden |
| Construction started | 1699 |
| Completed | 1702 |
| Renovated | 2009 |
| Client | Charles XII of Sweden |
| Design and construction | |
| Architect | Tessin the Younger |
| Renovating team | |
| Architect | Claesson Koivisto Rune |
The Hotel Skeppsholmen is a hotel on the islet of Skeppsholmen in central Stockholm, Sweden. The hotel comprises two early buildings, individually known as Västra/Östra boställshuset ("The Western/Eastern Residence House"), located along the Långa raden ("The long row").
Skeppsholmen is one of the islands of Stockholm. It is connected with Blasieholmen and Kastellholmen by bridges. It is accessible by foot from Kungsträdgården, past the Grand Hôtel and Nationalmuseum, by bus number 65, or by boat from Slussen, Djurgården or Nybroplan.
Stockholm is the capital of Sweden and the most populous urban area in the Nordic countries; 962,154 people live in the municipality, approximately 1.5 million in the urban area, and 2.3 million in the metropolitan area. The city stretches across fourteen islands where Lake Mälaren flows into the Baltic Sea. Just outside the city and along the coast is the island chain of the Stockholm archipelago. The area has been settled since the Stone Age, in the 6th millennium BC, and was founded as a city in 1252 by Swedish statesman Birger Jarl. It is also the capital of Stockholm County.
Sweden, officially the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Scandinavian Nordic country in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the west and north and Finland to the east, and is connected to Denmark in the southwest by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund, a strait at the Swedish-Danish border. At 450,295 square kilometres (173,860 sq mi), Sweden is the largest country in Northern Europe, the third-largest country in the European Union and the fifth largest country in Europe by area. Sweden has a total population of 10.2 million of which 2.5 million has a foreign background. It has a low population density of 22 inhabitants per square kilometre (57/sq mi). The highest concentration is in the southern half of the country.
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The two buildings were built in 1699-1702 to accommodate the 200 bodyguards of King Charles XII. They were built to the design of Nicodemus Tessin the Younger using bricks from several palaces, in Ekolsund, Gripsholm, Nyköping, Eskilstuna, and Svartsjö. As Charles spent most of his reign on the battlefields, however, neither building was used for the original purpose, serving instead to house the poor and homeless. Poor and homeless people of Stockholm emerged in great numbers following Sweden's defeat at the Battle of Poltava in 1709, but were considerably decimated by the Black Death, which hit the city the following year. As Sweden started to create its fleet of galleys in 1715, these two buildings were gradually transformed from hospitals into offices and workshops for the fleet. [1] [2] [3]
Charles XII, sometimes Carl or Latinized to Carolus Rex, was the King of Sweden from 1697 to 1718. He belonged to the House of Palatinate-Zweibrücken, a branch line of the House of Wittelsbach. Charles was the only surviving son of Charles XI and Ulrika Eleonora the Elder. He assumed power, after a seven-month caretaker government, at the age of fifteen.
Count Nicodemus Tessin the Younger was a Swedish Baroque architect, city planner, and administrator.
Nyköping is a locality and the seat of Nyköping Municipality, Södermanland County, Sweden with 32,759 inhabitants as of 2017. The city is also the capital of Södermanland County. Including Arnö, the locality on the southern shore of the bay just a couple of kilometres from the city centre, Nyköping would have 33,762 inhabitants according to the same SCB source. Commonly, Arnö is referred to as a part of the city proper. It forms a wider conurbation with the neighbouring minor municipality and town of Oxelösund 10 kilometres (6.2 mi) south of its outskirts.
By the 1770s, when the commissioner's office was relocated to a separate building, the two buildings were exclusively used by the officers and officials on the island as spacious residences, each disposing up to 17 rooms. In the mid 19th century a canteen for clerks and officials was built in the western building, and both buildings together began to be known as the Långa raden. The buildings were refurbished in 1958-1959 to serve the Swedish Navy administration and the Naval Officers Society (Sjöofficerssällskapet). The Naval Officers Society started using the buildings from the mid 19th century onward. [1] [2] [3]
The Swedish Royal Navy is the naval branch of the Swedish Armed Forces. It is composed of surface and submarine naval units – the Royal Fleet – as well as marine units, the Amphibious Corps (Amfibiekåren).
In 2009 the two buildings were converted into the Hotel Skeppsholmen, a 79-room hotel. The hotel's reception and restaurant are located in the Östra boställshuset along with some of the rooms. The Västra boställshuset contains the remaining rooms. The conversion was led by Stockholm-based architects Claesson Koivisto Rune. [4] [5]
Claesson Koivisto Rune is a Swedish design, interior design, and architecture company, founded in 1995.
The buildings have been government listed buildings since 1935. [2] [3] [5]
