My latest article: Schleissheim Palace

I have forgotten to mention that the March issue of Majesty (Vol. 38, No. 3) is now on sale. In this issue I continue my occasional series on European palaces and this time I write about Schleissheim just outside Munich, which is the site of three palaces. The largest of them is a splendid baroque palace that Elector Maximilian II Emanuel of Bavaria built to glorify the House of Wittelsbach, who held great ambitions at the time, and to commemorate his own military prowess as a commander in the wars against the Ottomans. However, his involvement in the War of the Spanish Succession not only almost cost him Bavaria as he was driven into exile, but also meant that work on the palace stood still for many years. Nevertheless the result is arguably one of Germany's most splendid palaces, which would probably have been known as "the Bavarian Versailles" were it not for the fact that "mad" King Ludwig II built a replica of Versailles further south.

What to see: Church of Gustav Vasa, Stockholm

Although it is the Cathedral that is known as “the Great Church” (Storkyrkan) the largest church in Stockholm is in fact the Church of Gustav Vasa at Odenplan, which can seat 1,500 people. It was built by the architect Agi Lindgren (1858-1927) between 1898 and 1906 in a neo-baroque style surmounted by a dome reaching 60 metres from the ground.
Building a neo-baroque church at the time when art nouveau was the flourishing and dominant style in Sweden might be considered an anachronism, but Lindgren was at the time employed as architect at Drottningholm Palace and was obviously full of admiration for the work of Nicodemus Tessin father and son.
It is obvious that Lindgren had made close studies of some of Stockholm’s baroque churches – such as the Church of Adolf Fredrik, but perhaps first and foremost the Church of Katarina. From his foreign travels he was also familiar with Italian baroque church architecture.
Alternatively the classical elements of this church might be interpreted as an indication of the classicist wave which would become a hallmark of Scandinavian architecture in the interwar years.
Inside the ceiling and dome are decorated with frescos by Vicke Andrén, while the interior is otherwise dominated by a massive baroque altar by Burchardt Precht, made in the 1720s and to be found in Uppsala Cathedral until its restoration in the late nineteenth century.
Beneath the church is a large columbarium built in 1923-1924, which was the first such thing in Sweden.

The Hermitage Palace to open its doors in 2013

Following the huge success of the public opening of the renovated crown princely residence Frederik VIII’s Mansion at Amalienborg between February and August last year, which was visited by nearly 480,000 people, the Palaces and Properties Agency let it be known that the surplus would be used towards making other similar buildings available to the public.
Earlier this month it was announced that this and a donation from the Augustinus Fund will result in the renovation of the Hermitage Palace in Jægersborg Deerpark just north of Copenhagen and that the palace will be open to the public after the restoration has been completed in 2013.
The baroque Hermitage Palace was built in 1734-1736 by the famous architect Lauritz de Thurah as a hunting lodge for King Christian VI. It is still used for royal hunts, but has only very rarely been open to the public on special occasions for the benefit of charity.

New books: Drottningholm from Gustaf III to Carl XVI Gustaf

The first volume on Drottningholm Palace in the book series on the Swedish royal palaces, published in 2004, told the royal domain’s story from the 1660s, when Dowager Queen Hedvig Eleonora had the palace built, until 1777, when Dowager Queen Lovisa Ulrika ceded it to her son Gustaf III. Back then some critics said that if the time of Gustaf III had been included as well, one might have done with only one volume, suggesting that there is little to be said about Drottningholm after the 18th century. The second volume of Drottningholms slott, Från Gustav III till Carl XVI Gustaf, edited by Göran Alm and Rebecka Millhagen and published by Votum Förlag in Karlstad this autumn, shows that this indeed a misconception.
This is the seventh book in the series which was revived last year with a volume on Haga and it follows the same pattern as the earlier volumes. There are thematic chapters by various experts in their fields, the book is profusely illustrated and it is based on the latest research, although not academic in language or form.
It was as mentioned in 1777 that Dowager Queen Lovisa Ulrika, who as a young bride in 1744 had been given the right to use the palace by King Fredrik I, ceded it to her eldest son, King Gustaf III. But although it has often been said so in the literature the authors of this book show that Drottningholm was not actually owned by Gustaf III. It had by 1777 already become state property and it was only the disposal right as well as her private furniture and collections that Lovisa Ulrika sold to her son.
Gustaf III considered it “the only of my countryside retreats which has a royal appearance” and Stina Odlinder Haubo points out that except the Royal Palace in Stockholm, Drottningholm was the only palace available to Gustaf III which had actually been built as a royal palace which was thus also intended to be a manifestation of royal power – unlike what was the case in for instance Denmark, the Swedish royal country palaces tended to have belonged to noble families before being bought and remodelled by the royals.
There is a multitude of topics covered by this book. Göran Alm opens the book with a chapter on court life at Drottningholm in the 1770s, followed by Magnus Olausson on the garden and the park in the days of Gustaf III, before Stina Odlinder Haubo considers the interiors during Gustaf III. Inga Lewenhaupt writes about the world-famous theatre at Drottningholm, Ingrid Sjöström about the other buildings on the domain and its surroundings, Thomas Roth about the military presence at Drottningholm and Catharina Nolin about the 20th century restoration of the gardens, to mention only the major chapters.
If I should single out some contributions for praise it would be those by Eva-Lena Bengtsson and Britt-Inger Johansson. Bengtsson writes about the changes to the interiors made by King Oscar I and Queen Josephina, in particular the Hall of State, where Queen Josephina surrounded her husband’s portrait with those of his contemporaries among the sovereigns of Europe (portraits of the female consorts of some of them were collected in a smaller adjacent room).
The future Carl IX and Gustaf III had done something similar at Gripsholm Castle and Bengtsson points out that Carl IX, Gustaf III and Oscar I all belonged to the second generation of a new dynasty. This was obviously done to stress the upstart Bernadottes’ equal status to other European monarchs and it is interesting to note that the future Gustaf V’s christening took place in this hall at the time most of the portraits had arrived.
Bengtsson observes that there seems to be no formal precedence taken into account when the portraits were placed on the walls, but notes that Oscar I is at the centre flanked by Emperor Napoléon III of France and Queen Victoria of Britain, “representing the real great powers of Europe”. But here there is probably another point which Bengtsson has overlooked: the portrait of Oscar I is thus flanked by the monarchs of the two countries with which he had entered into the so-called November Treaty in 1855.
Britt-Inger Johansson considers the changes to the interiors which were made during the 19th century. She takes to task the oft-repeated myth that Carl XIV Johan showed no interest in Drottningholm and allowed it to fall into disrepair, pointing out that he ordered general inventories of all the palaces to be carried out when he succeeded to the thrones in 1818, but that Parliament rejected his request for funds for its renovation. There are indications that the King might have had plans for a renovation paid for out of his own funds and that these ideas remained in his mind until well into the 1820s, but Johansson suggests that the building works at the palaces Rosendal and Rosersberg eventually drew away the King’s attention and money. Johansson also points out how the 19th century’s fondness for history led to interiors being created to commemorate the reigns of Carl XII, Carl XIV Johan and Oscar II himself, adding to Drottningholm’s status as a historical monument.
Bo Vahlne and Göran Alm present the history of Drottningholm and its interiors during the Bernadottes. Following Oscar I’s death it remained primarily at the disposal of his widow Josephina until her death in 1876, meaning that Carl XV rarely stayed there, but since then it has been frequently used by all successive monarchs: Oscar II, Gustaf V, Gustaf VI Adolf and Carl XVI Gustaf.
In 1981 King Carl Gustaf and his family left the Royal Palace in Stockholm and made Drottningholm their permanent, all-year home. This has led to one part of the palace being set aside for the royal family’s private quarters, something which Göran Alm argues is in a way to go back to the roots. In the 17th century Dowager Queen Hedvig Eleonora had both official apartments and a more private section, whereas Lovisa Ulrika and Gustaf III, and to a great extent also the earlier Bernadottes, did not draw a strict line between private and official rooms. A tentative separation of the palace along such lines began with King Gustaf V and Queen Victoria.
In 1991 the Drottningholm domain was added to UNESCO’s World Heritage list – the first such site in Sweden. Here and there in the book we hear about the great tourist interest in Drottningholm ever since the advent of steamboats in the early 19th centuries – the first guidebook dates from 1796 – and it is also suggested that the huge numbers of visitors (today reckoned to be about 500,000 annually) may have influenced certain decisions concerning the presentation of the palace and the gardens. Yet Göran Alm’s chapter on Drottningholm as a tourist attraction runs to a mere two pages and this is something I think could well have been dealt with more thoroughly, while some other chapters in my opinion appear too long and detailed.
Another thing I miss – in this as well as in many other books on palaces – is more about life at the palace. As mentioned Göran Alm provides some glimpses of court life in the 1770s, but we learn comparatively less about life at Drottningholm during subsequent monarchs, although there must be a fair amount of material on this available (royals as well as courtiers tell about this in published diaries and memoirs).
But all in all this is a highly informative book which offers an insightful and comprehensive account of the lesser-known parts of Drottningholm’s history. There can no longer be any reason to claim that Drottningholm does not have a rich and interesting history even after the assassination of Gustaf III.
The next volume in the book series will be about Tullgarn, my personal favourite among the eleven royal palaces of Sweden.

What to see: Stockholm Cathedral, Stockholm

Many eyes will be on the Cathedral of Stockholm on Saturday when Crown Princess Victoria marries Daniel Westling. The ceremony will be the latest of many historical events which have taken place in this church.
“Storkyrkan”, as it is called in Swedish (meaning literally “the Great Church”), was first mentioned in 1279 and was then called St Nikolai after the patron saint of the seafarers. Since then it has been much altered, expanded and rebuilt, including a tower which was begun around 1420. Later fourteen side chapels were integrated into the church itself. It received the status of a cathedral in 1942 when the Diocese of Stockholm was founded
The Cathedral is situated next to the Royal Palace, but in a rather unfortunate position. The façade facing Slottsbacken is actually the backside of the Cathedral, while the main entrance faces Trångsund, a very narrow street with no room for spectators at grand events like Saturday’s wedding.
Already Gustaf I wanted to demolish the church in order to gain a direct firing line from the old castle and later kings up to Gustaf III have also toyed with the idea of having the church demolished in order to build a new one which would fit better into their plans for a royal city.
In 1736-1742 the architect Johan Eberhard Carlberg altered the church to the baroque style to harmonise better with the new Royal Palace which was built in 1697-1754. During a renovation in 1903-1908 the whitewashed walls were stripped bare to reveal the red brick, something which was very fashionable at the time but does not harmonise with the original architectural intention.
Among the star sights of the Cathedral are the two royal chairs, seen in the third picture, designed by Nicodemus Tessin the Younger and executed by Burchardt Precht of Bremen in 1684-1686, and Bernt Notke’s sculpture of St George and the Dragon (fourth photo), unveiled on New Year’s Eve 1489.
The first coronation to take place in this church happened in 1336 and eventually it took over Uppsala Cathedral’s position as the coronation church. The last Swedish king to be crowned was Oscar II, whose coronation took place in this church in 1872.
It has also been the scene of numerous royal weddings, including three which also took place on the date 19 June – those of the future Oscar I and Joséphine of Leuchtenberg in 1823, of the future Carl XV and Louise of the Netherlands in 1850 and of Carl XVI Gustaf and Silvia Sommerlath in 1976. The most sumptuous royal wedding so far was probably that of Princess Ingrid to Crown Prince Frederik (IX) of Denmark in 1935.
While Riddarholmen Church was the traditional burial church for Swedish royals, the Cathedral has been the scene of the funerals of Crown Princess Margareta, Prince Gustaf Adolf, Prince Carl, Princess Ingeborg, Queen Louise and King Gustaf VI Adolf and the coffin of Crown Princess Margareta rested in the Cathedral for two years until it was transferred to the Royal Burial Ground at Haga in 1922.

What to see: Katarina Church, Stockholm

Rising over the heights of Söder, Katarina Church is one of Stockholm’s most visible landmarks. It can be seen from most of the city – across the water as in the sixth photo, but also forming a distant point de vue for Queen Street.
The first church there was the Sture Chapel, which was built in the 1580s on the spot where Sten Sture the Younger and 90 other victims of the infamous Stockholm blood bath were burned.
In 1654 Carl X Gustaf, who had just succeeded to the Swedish throne on the abdication of his cousin Queen Christina, commissioned a new church from Jean de la Vallée, one of the first professional architects in Sweden. It was named for the King’s mother, a sister of Gustaf II Adolf.
Four years later the King asked de la Vallée and Johan Wärnsköld to draw up plans for a royal metropolis at Söder, complete with a new palace to replace the old Castle of Three Crowns. This grand plan was never executed because of the King’s death in 1660, but the church was finally completed in 1690.
Unlike traditional Nordic churches, Katarina was a central church with the altar placed in the middle of the cross-shaped building, right beneath the cupola. The churchgoers protested and won the support of Carl XI.
The church burned down with much of its surroundings in 1723 and was rebuilt in 1724-1744 by Göran Josuæ Adelcrantz, whose son Carl Fredrik would later become one of Sweden’s greatest architects. Carl Fredrik Adelcrantz would later change the colour of the church’s exterior from red to the bright yellow we know today.
In another fire in 1990, the dome collapsed and came crashing down into the church, destroying it completely. It was carefully rebuilt and restored under the direction of Ove Hidemark in the following eight years.
The interior is powerful in itself although very simple and almost entirely devoid of decoration. The whitewashed falls allow for dramatic light settings, such as during a pre-Christmas concert as seen in the fifth photo.
The altar is still where it was placed in 1690. Above it is an empty cross with a blood-stained white cloth and a crown of thorns, a work of art made by Liss Eriksson and Kajsa Melanton and titled “Presence through absence”.
Among those buried in the churchyard is Anna Lindh, the much-loved foreign minister who was assassinated during the EMU referendum campaign in 2003 (last photo). She has now been joined by her husband Bo Holmberg, another former cabinet minister, who, unable to bear the tragedy of his wife’s death, survived her for only six years. Also buried at Katarina are the popular singer Cornelis Vreeswijk, the 17th century poet Las Wivallius, the politician Anna Lindhagen and the architect Carl Fredrik Adelcrantz.

What to see: Church of Santa Maria di Nazareth (Scalzi), Venice

The Church of Santa Maria di Nazareth is one of Venice’s best examples of Baroque churches. The popular name “Scalzi” refers to the Carmelite barefoot monks who established their order in Venice in 1633 and bought the plot of land facing the Grand Canal on which their church was built.
The architect Baldassare Longhena enlarged the church in 1654 and it was given its present appearance between 1660 and 1689 by Giuseppe Pozzo, who created the sumptuous interior seen in the first two pictures, and Giuseppe Sardi, who built the façade of Carrara marble. The church is a good example of how many Venetian churches have spent everything on the main façade and nothing on the side walls, as seen in the fourth photo. The vault originally had a fresco by Tiepolo, but this was unfortunately destroyed in a WWI air raid on Venice in 1915.
There are several side chapels on either side of the nave. In the Manin chapel (fifth photo) a simple stone slab marks the resting place of Ludovico Manin, the last Doge. It was he who, after the French invasion in 1797 brought down the millennial Republic, took of his ducal cornice and gave it to his servant with the words: “Take it away, I shall not be needing it again”. The text on the stone reads simply: “Manini cineres”, “the ashes of Manin”.

What to see: Palais Caprara-Geymüller, Vienna

Palais Caprara-Geymüller is a Baroque mansion located at 8 Wallnerstrasse, in an area of Vienna which is close to the Hofburg and filled with noble and princely mansions. This house was built by an unknown Italian architect in 1698 and at one stage it belonged to the princely family of Liechtenstein.
It came to play a dramatic part in the history of the Bernadotte dynasty when the army contractor Wimmer in 1798 rented it out, for an astronomic amount of money, to the French state to serve as its embassy after diplomatic relations between France and Austria had been restored by the peace of Campo Formio. General Jean-Baptiste Bernadotte was appointed French Ambassador in Vienna, although the Austrians would have preferred a more low-key representation, meaning a diplomat with a lower rank than that of Ambassador.
Bernadotte’s diplomatic career in Vienna was a short one – a mere 66 days. The representatives of revolutionary France had difficulties being accepted by the Viennese and it all culminated when the Ambassador ordered a sign to be put up outside the gate stating that this was the French Embassy. While waiting for the sign to arrive he on 13 April put up a French flag with the text “The French Republic’s Embassy in Vienna”. Back then it was not common for embassies to display their flags and the sight of a Tricolour in Marie-Antoinette’s hometown was a red rag to the Viennese.
Serious riots followed, with a mob attacking the Embassy, Bernadotte haranguing the crowds on the street and the mob eventually forcing their way into the Embassy and smashing everything they could get their hands on. Despite repeated pleas from the Ambassador it was five hours before the Austrian authorities intervened and dispersed the mob.
Bernadotte considered the riots the result of a conspiracy against France by the Austrian Foreign Minister Franz von Thugut and the ambassadors of Britain and Russia, but there is no evidence to support such a claim. The Austrians on their part thought France had deliberately provoked the riots to use them as an excuse for declaring war on Austria. The result was that Ambassador Bernadotte left Vienna in a fury, but after a period of tension war between the two countries were averted.
Although this was the end of Bernadotte’s short diplomatic career it meant that he now appeared on the stage of great politics. And it was also the first time he came into close contact with a Swede, namely that distant kingdom’s chargé d’affaires, Fredrik Samuel Silfverstolpe. Bernadotte was to return to Vienna only once, as a Marshal of the French Empire following the Battle of Wagram in 1809. The following year he was elected Crown Prince of Sweden and soon he would join forces with, among others, Austria to defeat France. He did not attend the Congress of Vienna in person, rather sending the diplomat Carl Löwenhielm.
Today the former French Embassy apparently serves as an office building.

What to see: The State Hall of the Austrian National Library, Vienna

The State Hall of the Austrian National Library is rightly considered one of the world’s most beautiful libraries and also one of the best Baroque interiors in Europe. It was built for Emperor Karl VI after plans drawn up by his court architect Johann Bernhard Fischer von Erlach (1665-1723). It was however Fischer von Erlach’s son Joseph Emanuel (1693-1742) who saw the plans through in the years 1723-1726.
The State Hall measures 77.7 by 14.2 metres and is 19.6 metres high, except for the cupola, which reaches nearly 30 metres to the sky. The allegorical ceiling frescoes were done by Daniel Gran and completed in 1730. The motif on the central cupola shows the apotheosis of Karl VI and beneath it is a statue of the Emperor as “Hercules Musarum” by the brothers Peter and Paul Strudel.
The nutwood bookcases hold some 200,000 books printed between 1501 and 1850. The 15,000 books placed in the library’s oval centre belonged to Prince Eugen of Savoy. Altogether 7.8 million books and other items are to be found in the collections of the Austrian National Library. The Austrian National Library’s website: www.onb.ac.at

What to see: Strömsholm Palace, Strömsholm

Strömsholm is probably the least known of the ten palaces currently at the disposal of the King of Sweden. It is also the one which is furthest away from Stockholm, situated almost in the middle of nowhere 5 kilometres from a small place called Kolbäck (a railway station, a café and some shops) and 27 kilometres from the town of Eskilstuna.
The first palace on the spot was built in the late 1550s for the third and last wife of King Gustaf I, Queen Katarina, née Stenbock. The current palace is however a Baroque structure built for the Dowager Queen Hedvig Eleonora by the architect Nicodemus Tessin the Elder (1615-1681) in 1669-1681. The interior did however remain unfinished until Queen Ulrika Eleonora the Younger had Carl Hårleman decorate them in the 1730s. In 1766 the palace was put at the disposal of Crown Princess Sophia Magdalena, the bride of the future Gustaf III, and the interiors were redecorated in Rococo style, some of which were later redecorated again in Gustavian (early neoclassical) style.
In 1808 the Dowager Queen Sophia Magdalena exchanged Strömsholm for Ulriksdal Palace, which is much closer to Stockholm. The last royal to use Strömsholm was King Carl XIV Johan – Sweden had then joined Norway in a union in 1814 and the King would sleep at Strömsholm when travelling between the capitals of his two kingdoms, a journey which back then took at least one week.
Following his death in 1844, no-one showed much interest in the palace, which in 1868 was made available for the Army Riding and Driving School. They stayed for a century, leaving the palace in 1960 and the estate in 1968. The rooms on the ground floor were restored in the 1990s, bringing the interiors back to what they were like in 1816, the year of the first complete inventory of the palace. Strömsholm is open to the public in the summer, but the royal family rarely come there.
The largest room on the ground floor is the Hall of Portraits – the name derives from the large portraits of the palace’s founder Queen Hedvig Eleonora and the monarchs Gustaf I, Gustaf II Adolf, Christina, Carl X Gustaf, Carl XI, Carl XII, Ulrika Eleonora and Carl XIV Johan, the latter posing with the crowns of both Sweden and Norway on a table to his right.
The Chinese Dining-Room is one of the most beautiful rooms of the palace – the wall paintings are by Lars Bolander and were done in 1774. On the walls of the ground floor can be found a large number of portraits of members of the dynasties Pfalz and Holstein-Gottorp and various relatives, as well as some landscapes done by Queen Ulrika Eleonora the Elder, consort of Carl XI and a keen amateur painter.
On the second floor the most important room is the Hall of State, where one can see large paintings of King Carl XI and his favourite horses. On the third floor, beneath the lantern, is the Palace Chapel, dating from 1734-1741.

What to see: St Peter’s Square, the Vatican City

St Peter’s Square, one of the greatest works of the Roman baroque, was laid out between 1657 and 1667 by the sculptor and architect Gian Lorenzo Bernini on the orders of Pope Alexander VII. It is one of the greatest works of the Roman baroque and often counted as the very centre of the Christian world. When Bernini was given the task by the Pope, the square was to put it simply a mess which had to be completely rearranged.
Projecting from the façade of St Peter’s Basilica are two rectangular wings which frame the inner part of the square. The outer part of the square is in the shape of an ellipse, has a diameter of 240 metres from its northern to its southern end and is flanked by Doric colonnades on either side. Bernini himself described the colonnades as the “arms” of the church, stretching out in welcome to all visitors, believers and non-believers, and drawing them towards the church.
Because the colonnade is curved Bernini arranged the 284 columns four deep on radial axes and gradually increased their diameter in order not to disturb the proportions between spaces and columns. The colonnades are topped by 140 statues of saints, each measuring 3.1 metres in height, and six coats of arms of Alexander VII.

What to see: Kadriorg Palace, Tallinn

Kadriorg Palace in the Estonian capital Tallinn is an outstanding example of Russian baroque from the era of Emperor Pyotr I (“the Great”). The Emperor had come to like the city of Reval, as it was called then, and was also planning a naval base on the Gulf of Finland. The spot where Kadriorg was built reminded him of Peterhof outside St Petersburg and in 1714 he bought the five estates between the Tartu Road and Narva Road.
For a start the Emperor stayed in a wooden house which had been built before his time (today known as the Peter I Cottage), but this was of course too small and inconvenient. The monarch had the Italian architect Niccolò Michetti (1675-1743) him a palace, starting in 1718, but did not live to see it completed. The Emperor died in 1725, while his widow and successor, Empress Ekaterina I, for whom the Palace was named, died two years later. Michetti had in the meantime returned to Rome, leaving the task of completing the palace to his Russian associate Mikhail Zemtsov, who finished it in 1729.
All the Russian monarchs from Yelizaveta I to Nikolaj II stayed at Kadriorg when they visited Tallinn. Following the downfall of the Russian monarchy in 1917 Tallinn Workers’ and Soldiers’ Council used the palace before it was given to the Tallinn Estonian Museum in 1921.
During Estonia’s brief interwar spell as an independent nation Kadriorg became the official residence of the country’s president and underwent extensive renovation work in 1933-1940. When Estonia once again came under Russian rule the palace was put at the disposal of the Art Museum of Estonia.
At the time Estonia again became independent in 1991 the Palace was so rundown that the art collections had had to be removed not to be damaged. Kadriorg Palace was then renovated with financial assistance from Sweden and in 2000 it could again open as the Kadriorg Art Museum, a branch of the Art Museum of Estonia.
Kadriorg Palace is situated on a semi-artificial terrace, which means that it displays three storeys towards the park, but only two towards the formal garden, as can be seen in the first three photos. Towards the garden are two projecting wings in the French manner, which housed the Emperor’s and Empress’s respective apartments. As well as French ideas there is a significant Italian influence on the palace’s architecture.
The Grand Hall in the fourth picture lies at the very centre of the palace and takes up two floors. Today it is an almost unique example of such large halls in the Italian-inspired Russian baroque of Pyotr I’s reign. In Russia today one can only find smaller rooms in the same style while the grander ones have either been reconstructed or do no longer exist. The fifth picture shows a detail of the Grand Hall’s rich stucco décor – above the bust of Ekaterina I is her monogram.
The sixth photo shows the Banquet Hall, which is of relatively new origins. In 1790 Ekaterina II had expressed a wish to build a large dining room linking the two projecting wings, something which involved demolishing a semicircular veranda towards the formal garden. The plan was however only carried out by the architect Alexander Vladovsky (1876-1950) when Kadriorg became the residence of the President of Estonia in the 1930s. The Estonian President today resides in a neighbouring palace.

Kadriorg’s website:

http://www.ekm.ee/kadriorg/