Parliament House, Stockholm

Riksdagshuset, the Reichstag building in Stockholm is the seat of the Swedish Parliament. The building is located on the island Helgeandsholmen and was built in 1897-1905.

The building

For the new building of the Reichstag was elected in 1888, the island Helgeandsholmen ( Holy Spirit Island ), just north of Stockholm city castle. On Helgeandsholmen there was a large number of smaller, fairly dilapidated buildings, now order should be created here. The brief was to create a pompous, monumental building, which should be difficult on the narrow plot of land, surrounded by water. The architect Aron Johansson was commissioned to design the new building, although he had not won the previous architecture competition. The building was also home to the premises for the Riksbank. A preliminary draft of 1894 provided for a dome, which was not realized. There were removed 37,000 cubic meters of soil and beaten over 9,000 oak piles to primary reinforcement. On May 13, 1897 Oscar II laid the foundation, and on 12 January 1905 after almost eight years of construction, the Reichstag building was inaugurated, a year later, the Riksbank part.

Soon have been criticized because of the construction in the style of Neo-Baroque style did not reflect the new architecture ideal of the early 20th century and was much get too powerful. To this end, there had been shortages of building materials and craftsmen, as the same time the Stockholm Opera House and the fashionable Strandvägen were built, which drove up costs and was completed as the work, the expenditure had almost doubled. Hardly a building in Stockholm has been discussed as passionately as the Reichstag building.

For the construction of the Reichstag Swedish natural stones, including various granites, a Silurian limestone and sandstone have been used. In the main staircase area and in Vestübel the marble came from Gropptorp (municipality Marmorbyn at Katrine Holm ) are used.

Remodeling 1980-83

In 1971 when the Swedish bicameral parliament was replaced by Einkammerreichstag, it was necessary to create a large plenary hall. During the years 1980-1983, a comprehensive renovation designed by the Archtiktenfirma Ahlgren, Olsson, Silow Arkitektkontor AB was performed. The Reichsbank building and the Reichstag were merged, the Reichsbank was given a new home at Brunkebergstorg and the western part of the complex was expanded and now includes the Chamber.

Excavations

The excavation work for an underground car park in front of the Reichstag was made by numerous archaeological finds. It was discovered house foundations from the 13th century, the remains of the Stockholm city wall from the 16th century, eleven boats of various epochs, over 1000 human skeletons (in this case there was also once a cemetery), the remains of a pharmacy from the 17th century as well as coins, broken glass, bottles, well-preserved pieces of clothing and chalk pipes.

To make it accessible to all these interesting findings of the public who originally planned underground car park has been reduced in size and built the medeltidsmuseum ( Medieval Museum ) instead. The large pit that had arisen during the excavations, had soon given the name Rikgropen ( the kingdom of mine ).

Pictures

From the North

From the northwest

View from the west

The plenary