1.
Geographic coordinate system
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A geographic coordinate system is a coordinate system used in geography that enables every location on Earth to be specified by a set of numbers, letters or symbols. The coordinates are chosen such that one of the numbers represents a vertical position. A common choice of coordinates is latitude, longitude and elevation, to specify a location on a two-dimensional map requires a map projection. The invention of a coordinate system is generally credited to Eratosthenes of Cyrene. Ptolemy credited him with the adoption of longitude and latitude. Ptolemys 2nd-century Geography used the prime meridian but measured latitude from the equator instead. Mathematical cartography resumed in Europe following Maximus Planudes recovery of Ptolemys text a little before 1300, in 1884, the United States hosted the International Meridian Conference, attended by representatives from twenty-five nations. Twenty-two of them agreed to adopt the longitude of the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, the Dominican Republic voted against the motion, while France and Brazil abstained. France adopted Greenwich Mean Time in place of local determinations by the Paris Observatory in 1911, the latitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle between the equatorial plane and the straight line that passes through that point and through the center of the Earth. Lines joining points of the same latitude trace circles on the surface of Earth called parallels, as they are parallel to the equator, the north pole is 90° N, the south pole is 90° S. The 0° parallel of latitude is designated the equator, the plane of all geographic coordinate systems. The equator divides the globe into Northern and Southern Hemispheres, the longitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle east or west of a reference meridian to another meridian that passes through that point. All meridians are halves of great ellipses, which converge at the north and south poles, the prime meridian determines the proper Eastern and Western Hemispheres, although maps often divide these hemispheres further west in order to keep the Old World on a single side. The antipodal meridian of Greenwich is both 180°W and 180°E, the combination of these two components specifies the position of any location on the surface of Earth, without consideration of altitude or depth. The grid formed by lines of latitude and longitude is known as a graticule, the origin/zero point of this system is located in the Gulf of Guinea about 625 km south of Tema, Ghana. To completely specify a location of a feature on, in, or above Earth. Earth is not a sphere, but a shape approximating a biaxial ellipsoid. It is nearly spherical, but has an equatorial bulge making the radius at the equator about 0. 3% larger than the radius measured through the poles, the shorter axis approximately coincides with the axis of rotation
2.
Stockholm
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The city is spread across 14 islands on the coast in the southeast of Sweden at the mouth of Lake Mälaren, by the Stockholm archipelago and the Baltic Sea. The area has settled since the Stone Age, in the 6th millennium BC. It is also the capital of Stockholm County, Stockholm is the cultural, media, political, and economic centre of Sweden. The Stockholm region alone accounts for over a third of the countrys GDP and it is an important global city, and the main centre for corporate headquarters in the Nordic region. The city is home to some of Europes top ranking universities, such as the Stockholm School of Economics, Karolinska Institute and it hosts the annual Nobel Prize ceremonies and banquet at the Stockholm Concert Hall and Stockholm City Hall. One of the citys most prized museums, the Vasa Museum, is the most visited museum in Scandinavia. The Stockholm metro, opened in 1950, is known for its decoration of the stations. Swedens national football arena is located north of the city centre, Ericsson Globe, the national indoor arena, is in the southern part of the city. The city was the host of the 1912 Summer Olympics, and hosted the equestrian portion of the 1956 Summer Olympics otherwise held in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. Stockholm is the seat of the Swedish government and most of its agencies, including the highest courts in the judiciary, and the official residencies of the Swedish monarch and the Prime Minister. The government has its seat in the Rosenbad building, the Riksdag is seated in the Parliament House, and the Prime Ministers residence is adjacent at the Sager House. After the Ice Age, around 8,000 BCE, there were already a number of people living in the present-day Stockholm area. Thousands of years later, as the ground thawed, the climate became tolerable, at the intersection of the Baltic Sea and lake Mälaren is an archipelago site where the Old Town of Stockholm was first built from about 1000 CE by Vikings. They had a positive impact on the area because of the trade routes they created. Stockholms location appears in Norse sagas as Agnafit, and in Heimskringla in connection with the legendary king Agne, the earliest written mention of the name Stockholm dates from 1252, by which time the mines in Bergslagen made it an important site in the iron trade. The first part of the name means log in Swedish, although it may also be connected to an old German word meaning fortification, the second part of the name means islet, and is thought to refer to the islet Helgeandsholmen in central Stockholm. Stockholms core, the present Old Town was built on the island next to Helgeandsholmen from the mid 13th century onward. The city originally rose to prominence as a result of the Baltic trade of the Hanseatic League, Stockholm developed strong economic and cultural linkages with Lübeck, Hamburg, Gdańsk, Visby, Reval, and Riga during this time
3.
Sweden
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Sweden, officially the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the west and Finland to the east, at 450,295 square kilometres, Sweden is the third-largest country in the European Union by area, with a total population of 10.0 million. Sweden consequently has a low density of 22 inhabitants per square kilometre. Approximately 85% of the lives in urban areas. Germanic peoples have inhabited Sweden since prehistoric times, emerging into history as the Geats/Götar and Swedes/Svear, Southern Sweden is predominantly agricultural, while the north is heavily forested. Sweden is part of the area of Fennoscandia. The climate is in very mild for its northerly latitude due to significant maritime influence. Today, Sweden is a monarchy and parliamentary democracy, with a monarch as head of state. The capital city is Stockholm, which is also the most populous city in the country, legislative power is vested in the 349-member unicameral Riksdag. Executive power is exercised by the government chaired by the prime minister, Sweden is a unitary state, currently divided into 21 counties and 290 municipalities. Sweden emerged as an independent and unified country during the Middle Ages, in the 17th century, it expanded its territories to form the Swedish Empire, which became one of the great powers of Europe until the early 18th century. Swedish territories outside the Scandinavian Peninsula were gradually lost during the 18th and 19th centuries, the last war in which Sweden was directly involved was in 1814, when Norway was militarily forced into personal union. Since then, Sweden has been at peace, maintaining a policy of neutrality in foreign affairs. The union with Norway was peacefully dissolved in 1905, leading to Swedens current borders, though Sweden was formally neutral through both world wars, Sweden engaged in humanitarian efforts, such as taking in refugees from German-occupied Europe. After the end of the Cold War, Sweden joined the European Union on 1 January 1995 and it is also a member of the United Nations, the Nordic Council, Council of Europe, the World Trade Organization and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. Sweden maintains a Nordic social welfare system that provides health care. The modern name Sweden is derived through back-formation from Old English Swēoþēod and this word is derived from Sweon/Sweonas. The Swedish name Sverige literally means Realm of the Swedes, excluding the Geats in Götaland, the etymology of Swedes, and thus Sweden, is generally not agreed upon but may derive from Proto-Germanic Swihoniz meaning ones own, referring to ones own Germanic tribe
4.
Christian denomination
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A Christian denomination is a distinct religious body within Christianity, identified by traits such as a name, organisation, leadership and doctrine. Individual bodies, however, may use alternative terms to describe themselves, groups of denominations—often sharing broadly similar beliefs, practices, and historical ties—are sometimes known as branches of Christianity or denominational families. Individual Christian groups vary widely in the degree to which they recognize one another, several groups claim to be the direct and sole authentic successor of the church founded by Jesus Christ in the 1st century AD. Others, however, believe in denominationalism, where some or all Christian groups are legitimate churches of the same regardless of their distinguishing labels, beliefs. Because of this concept, some Christian bodies reject the term denomination to describe themselves, however, the Catholic Church does not view itself as a denomination, but as the original pre-denominational church. This view is rejected by other Christian denominations, Protestant denominations account for approximately 37 percent of Christians worldwide. Together, Catholicism and Protestantism comprise Western Christianity, Western Christian denominations prevail in Western, Northern, Central and Southern Europe, Sub-Saharan Africa, the Americas and Oceania. The Eastern Orthodox Church, with an estimated 225–300 million adherents, is the second-largest Christian organization in the world, unlike the Catholic Church, the Eastern Orthodox Church is itself a communion of fully independent autocephalous churches that mutually recognize each other to the exclusion of others. The Eastern Orthodox Church, together with Oriental Orthodoxy and the Assyrian Church of the East, Eastern Christian denominations are represented mostly in Eastern Europe, North Asia, the Middle East and Northeast Africa. Christians have various doctrines about the Church and about how the church corresponds to Christian denominations. Both Catholics and Eastern Orthodox hold that their own organizations faithfully represent the One Holy catholic and Apostolic Church to the exclusion of the other, sixteenth-century Protestants separated from the Catholic Church because of theologies and practices that they considered to be in violation of their own interpretation. But some non-denominational Christians do not follow any particular branch, though regarded as Protestants. Each group uses different terminology to discuss their beliefs and this section will discuss the definitions of several terms used throughout the article, before discussing the beliefs themselves in detail in following sections. A denomination within Christianity can be defined as an autonomous branch of the Christian Church, major synonyms include religious group, sect, Church. Some traditional and evangelical Protestants draw a distinction between membership in the church and fellowship within the local church. Becoming a believer in Christ makes one a member of the universal church, a related concept is denominationalism, the belief that some or all Christian groups are legitimate churches of the same religion regardless of their distinguishing labels, beliefs, and practices. Protestant leaders differ greatly from the views of the leaders of the Roman Catholic Church and the Eastern Orthodox Church, each church makes mutually exclusive claims for itself to be the direct continuation of the Church founded by Jesus Christ, from whom other denominations later broke away. These churches, and a few others, reject denominationalism, Christianity can be taxonomically divided into five main groups, the Church of the East, Oriental Orthodoxy, Eastern Orthodoxy, Roman Catholicism, and Protestantism
5.
Church of Sweden
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The Church of Sweden is the largest Christian church in Sweden. A member of the Porvoo Communion, the Church professes the Lutheran branch of Christianity and it is composed of thirteen dioceses, divided into parishes. It is a national church which, working with a democratic organisation and through the ministry of the church. The Primate of the Church of Sweden is the Archbishop of Uppsala — currently Antje Jackelén, today, the Church of Sweden is an Evangelical Lutheran church. 6.2 million people are members of the Church of Sweden and it is liturgically and theologically high church, having retained priests, vestments, and the Mass during the Swedish Reformation. In common with other Evangelical Lutheran churches, the Church of Sweden maintains the historical episcopate, the Church of Sweden is known for its liberal position in theological issues, particularly the question of homosexuality. When Bishop Eva Brunne was consecrated as Bishop of Stockholm in 2009, despite a significant yearly loss of members, its membership of 6,225,091 people accounts for 63. 2% of the Swedish population. Until 2000 it held the position of state church, the high membership numbers are because until 1996 all newborn children were made members, unless their parents had actively cancelled their membership. Approximately 2% of the members regularly attend Sunday services. According to a Gallup poll conducted in 2009, 17% of the Swedish population considered religion as an important part of their daily life, King Gustav I Vasa instigated the Church of Sweden in 1536 during his reign as King of Sweden. This act separated the church from the Roman Catholic Church and its canon law, in 1571, the Swedish Church Ordinance became the first Swedish church order following the Reformation. The Church of Sweden became Lutheran at the Uppsala Synod in 1593 when it adopted the Augsburg Confession to which most Lutherans adhere, at this synod, it was decided that the church would retain the three original Christian creeds, the Apostles, the Athanasian, and the Nicene. In 1686, the Riksdag of the Estates adopted the Book of Concord, although certain parts, labelled Confessio fidei, were considered binding. Confessio dei included the three aforementioned Creeds, the Augsburg Confession and two Uppsala Synod decisions from 1572 and 1593, during the 20th century the Church of Sweden oriented itself strongly towards liberal Christianity and human rights. In 1957, the assembly rejected a proposal for ordination of women. Since 1960, women have been ordained as priests, and since 1994, a proposal to perform same-sex weddings was approved on October 22,2009 by 176 of 249 voting members of the Church of Sweden Synod. The Christian church in Scandinavia was originally governed by the archdiocese of Bremen, in 1104 an archbishop for all Scandinavia was installed in Lund. Uppsala was made Swedens archdiocese in 1164, and remains so today, the papal diplomat William of Modena attended a church meeting in Skänninge in March 1248, where the ties to the Catholic Church were strengthened
6.
Diocese
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The word diocese is derived from the Greek term διοίκησις meaning administration. When now used in a sense, it refers to a territorial unit of administration. This structure of governance is known as episcopal polity. The word diocesan means relating or pertaining to a diocese and it can also be used as a noun meaning the bishop who has the principal supervision of a diocese. An archdiocese is more significant than a diocese, an archdiocese is presided over by an archbishop whose see may have or have had importance due to size or historical significance. The archbishop may have authority over any other suffragan bishops. In the Latter Day Saint movement, the bishopric is used to describe the bishop himself. Especially in the Middle Ages, some bishops held political as well as religious authority within their dioceses, in the later organization of the Roman Empire, the increasingly subdivided provinces were administratively associated in a larger unit, the diocese. With the adoption of Christianity as the Empires official religion in the 4th century, a formal church hierarchy was set up, parallel to the civil administration, whose areas of responsibility often coincided. With the collapse of the Western Empire in the 5th century, a similar, though less pronounced, development occurred in the East, where the Roman administrative apparatus was largely retained by the Byzantine Empire. In modern times, many dioceses, though later subdivided, have preserved the boundaries of a long-vanished Roman administrative division, modern usage of diocese tends to refer to the sphere of a bishops jurisdiction. As of January 2015, in the Catholic Church there are 2,851 regular dioceses,1 papal see,641 archdioceses and 2,209 dioceses in the world, in the Eastern rites in communion with the Pope, the equivalent unit is called an eparchy. Eastern Orthodoxy calls dioceses metropoleis in the Greek tradition or eparchies in the Slavic tradition, after the Reformation, the Church of England retained the existing diocesan structure which remains throughout the Anglican Communion. The one change is that the areas administered under the Archbishop of Canterbury and Archbishop of York are properly referred to as provinces and this usage is relatively common in the Anglican Communion. Certain Lutheran denominations such as the Church of Sweden do have individual dioceses similar to Roman Catholics and these dioceses and archdioceses are under the government of a bishop. Other Lutheran bodies and synods that have dioceses and bishops include the Church of Denmark, the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland, the Evangelical Church in Germany, rather, it is divided into a middle judicatory. The Lutheran Church-International, based in Springfield, Illinois, presently uses a traditional diocesan structure and its current president is Archbishop Robert W. Hotes. The Church of God in Christ has dioceses throughout the United States, in the COGIC, each state is divided up into at least three dioceses that are all led by a bishop, but some states as many as seven dioceses
7.
Bishop
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A bishop is an ordained, consecrated, or appointed member of the Christian clergy who is generally entrusted with a position of authority and oversight. Within these churches, bishops are seen as those who possess the full priesthood, Some Protestant churches including the Lutheran and Methodist churches have bishops serving similar functions as well, though not always understood to be within apostolic succession in the same way. Priests, deacons and lay ministers cooperate and assist their bishop in shepherding a flock, the earliest organization of the Church in Jerusalem was, according to most scholars, similar to that of Jewish synagogues, but it had a council or college of ordained presbyters. In, we see a system of government in Jerusalem chaired by James the Just. In, the Apostle Paul ordains presbyters in churches in Anatolia, in Timothy and Titus in the New Testament a more clearly defined episcopate can be seen. We are told that Paul had left Timothy in Ephesus and Titus in Crete to oversee the local church, Paul commands Titus to ordain presbyters/bishops and to exercise general oversight, telling him to rebuke with all authority. Early sources are unclear but various groups of Christian communities may have had the bishop surrounded by a group or college functioning as leaders of the local churches, eventually, as Christendom grew, bishops no longer directly served individual congregations. Instead, the Metropolitan bishop appointed priests to each congregation. Around the end of the 1st century, the organization became clearer in historical documents. While Ignatius of Antioch offers the earliest clear description of monarchial bishops he is an advocate of monepiscopal structure rather than describing an accepted reality. To the bishops and house churches to which he writes, he offers strategies on how to pressure house churches who dont recognize the bishop into compliance. Other contemporary Christian writers do not describe monarchial bishops, either continuing to equate them with the presbyters or speaking of episkopoi in a city, plainly therefore we ought to regard the bishop as the Lord Himself — Epistle of Ignatius to the Ephesians 6,1. Your godly bishop — Epistle of Ignatius to the Magnesians 2,1, therefore as the Lord did nothing without the Father, either by Himself or by the Apostles, so neither do ye anything without the bishop and the presbyters. — Epistle of Ignatius to the Magnesians 7,1. Be obedient to the bishop and to one another, as Jesus Christ was to the Father, and as the Apostles were to Christ and to the Father, — Epistle of Ignatius to the Magnesians 13,2. Apart from these there is not even the name of a church, — Epistle of Ignatius to the Trallesians 3,1. Follow your bishop, as Jesus Christ followed the Father, and the presbytery as the Apostles, and to the deacons pay respect, as to Gods commandment — Epistle of Ignatius to the Smyrnans 8,1. He that honoureth the bishop is honoured of God, he that doeth aught without the knowledge of the bishop rendereth service to the devil — Epistle of Ignatius to the Smyrnans 9,1
8.
Eva Brunne
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Gerd Eva Cecilia Brunne is a bishop in the Church of Sweden. She became the Bishop of Stockholm in 2009 and she is the first openly lesbian bishop of a mainstream church in the world and the first bishop of the Church of Sweden to be in a registered same-sex partnership. Brunne was born in Malmö, where she grew up. Following college, she became a student at Lund University. She was ordained as a priest in 1978 and started serving in the Diocese of Lund, comprising Swedens southernmost provinces of Blekinge, Brunne spent the first years of her priesthood in Karlskrona, Blekinge. In 1980, upon becoming Secretary General of the Swedish Student Christian Movement, before taking up the post of vicar of Sundbyberg parish in 1990, she functioned as university chaplain and bishops adviser. Following eight years of vicarship in Sundbyberg, Brunne spent another eight years as vicar of Flemingsberg, in 2000, she became the head of Huddinge and Botkyrka deanary, serving as such until 2006. Having represented the clergy in the chapter of the Lutheran Diocese of Stockholm from 1997 until 2005, on 26 May 2009, Brunne was elected Bishop of Stockholm, succeeding Caroline Krook. She is the first openly lesbian bishop in the world and the first bishop of the Church of Sweden to have lived in a homosexual partnership. On the official website of the Church of Sweden, Brunne wrote, I am in the lucky situation that I have power, and I can use it for the benefit of those who have no power. Brunne was consecrated as bishop by Anders Wejryd, Archbishop of Uppsala, king Carl XVI Gustaf and Queen Silvia attended the consecration. Archbishop Wejryd denied that the clergy of the Church of England was boycotting the ceremony, the cross is a reminder that faith in the crucified and risen Christ gives bliss. In October 2010, Bishop Brunne took part in a rally against racism in Stockholm, the following day, Brunne mentioned the demonstrations in a traditional church sermon that precedes the opening of the Riksdag. In response, Jimmie Åkesson and other members of the party stormed out of the church, Åkesson said that the Bishop obviously attacked his party in her speech. Brunne denied that the speech was directed against a specific party, since 2001, Brunne has been in a registered partnership with Gunilla Lindén, who is also an ordained priest of the Church of Sweden. The couples relationship received a blessing and the two have a son, born c. Profile at the website of the Church of Sweden
9.
Gamla stan
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Gamla stan, until 1980 officially Staden mellan broarna, is the old town of Stockholm, Sweden. Gamla stan consists primarily of the island Stadsholmen, officially, but not colloquially, Gamla stan includes the surrounding islets Riddarholmen, Helgeandsholmen, and Strömsborg. The town dates back to the 13th century, and consists of medieval alleyways, cobbled streets, north German architecture has had a strong influence in the Old Towns construction. Stortorget is the name of the large square in the centre of Gamla Stan. The square was the site of the Stockholm Bloodbath, where Swedish noblemen were massacred by the Danish King Christian II in November,1520, the following revolt and civil war led to the dissolution of the Kalmar Union and the subsequent election of King Gustav I. The House of Nobility is on the corner of Gamla stan. The restaurant Den gyldene freden is located on Österlånggatan and it has been in business since 1722 and according to the Guinness Book of Records is the oldest existing restaurant with an unaltered interior. A statue of St. George and the Dragon can be found in the Stockholm Cathedral, the plaque just below the statue says its name Järnpojken. It was created by Liss Eriksson in 1967, from the 1970s and 80s, however, it has become a tourist attraction as the charm of its medieval, Renaissance architecture and later additions have been valued by later generations. The name Stockholm originally referred to Gamla Stan only, but as the city expanded, the now also refers several suburban areas. The name Stockholm means log island in Swedish, the previous capital of Sweden was located in Sigtuna. A thousand years ago Sigtuna had problems with armed gangs attacking the city, the situation became untenable and there was a need to find a new location for the capital city of Sweden. According to legend the leaders in Sigtuna then took a log of wood, cut out all the wood inside, filled it with gold, the log was floating on the water for several days and eventually hit land on the island where Gamla Stan today is located. The island was named Stockholm or log island, meaning the place where the log had hit ground and this is where they decided to found the new capital of Sweden. The island of Stockholm had the advantage that it was an island and it also had the advantage from a trade point of view, that it was situated just at the inlet of Lake Mälaren, a big lake very important to contemporary trade, from the Baltic. A sculpture symbolizing the old log is found at Stadshuset. The name Gamla stan probably dates back to the early 20th century, the word stan is simply a contraction of the word staden, meaning the town. In 1957 a station of the Stockholm metro was opened here with the name Gamla stan, even though the official name was changed to Gamla stan in 1980, modern Stockholm is occasionally called The city between the bridges
10.
Brick Gothic
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Brick Gothic is a specific style of Gothic architecture common in Northern Europe, especially in the regions around the Baltic Sea, which do not have natural stone resources. The buildings are built using bricks. Buildings classified as Brick Gothic are found in Belgium, Netherlands, Germany, Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Russia, Sweden and Finland. As the use of baked red brick arrived in Northern Europe in the 12th century, in the 16th century, Brick Gothic was superseded by Brick Renaissance architecture. Many of the old town centres dominated by Brick Gothic, as well as individual structures, have been listed as UNESCO World Heritage sites. Different from other styles, the definition of Brick Gothic is based on the material, and by a strict definition. In 1158, Henry the Lion founded Lübeck, in 1160 he conquered the Slavic principality of Schwerin and this partially violent colonisation was accompanied by the Christianisation of the Slavs and the foundation of dioceses at Ratzeburg, Schwerin, Cammin, Brandenburg and elsewhere. The newly founded cities soon joined the Hanseatic League and formed the Wendic Circle, with its centre at Lübeck, in rural areas, the monastic architecture of monks orders had a major influence on the development of brick architecture, especially through the Cistercians and Premonstratensians. Between Prussia and Estonia, the Teutonic Knights secured their rule by erecting numerous Ordensburgen, Brick architecture became prevalent in the 12th century, still within the Romanesque architecture period. Wooden architecture had long dominated in northern Germany but was inadequate for the construction of monumental structures, throughout the area of Brick Gothic, half-timbered architecture remained typical for smaller buildings, especially in rural areas, well into modern times. The techniques of building and decorating in bricks were imported from Lombardy, also some decorative forms of Lombard architecture were adopted. In the areas dominated by the Welfs, the use of brick to replace natural stone began with cathedrals and parish churches at Oldenburg, Segeberg, Ratzeburg, Henry the Lion laid the foundation stone of the Cathedral in 1173. In the Margraviate of Brandenburg, the lack of natural stone, Brick architecture here started with the Cathedral of Brandenburg, begun in 1165 under Albert the Bear. Jerichow Monastery, with construction started as early as 1148, plays a key role regarding Brick Gothic in Brandenburg, Romanesque brick architecture remained closely connected with contemporary stone architecture and simply translated the latters style and repertoire into the new material. Nonetheless, they were influenced by the cathedrals of France. Furthermore, special shaped bricks were produced to facilitate the imitation of architectural sculpture, since the bricks used were made of clay, available in copious quantities in the Northern German Plain, they quickly became the normal replacement for building stone. The so-called monastic format became the standard for bricks used in representative buildings and its bricks measure circa 28 x 15 x 9 cm to 30 x 14 x 10 cm, with interstices of about 1.5 cm. In contrast to hewn-stone Gothic, the bricks and shaped bricks were not produced locally by lodges, the use of shaped bricks for tracery and friezes also can be found in some buildings of northwestern Gothic brick architecture
11.
Stockholm Palace
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Stockholm Palace or The Royal Palace is the official residence and major royal palace of the Swedish monarch. Stockholm Palace is located on Stadsholmen, in Gamla stan in the capital, the offices of the King, the other members of the Swedish Royal Family, and the offices of the Royal Court of Sweden are located here. The palace is used for representative purposes by the King whilst performing his duties as the head of state. This royal residence has been in the location by Norrström in the northern part of the Gamla stan in Stockholm since the middle of the 13th century when the Tre Kronor Castle was built. In modern times the name relates to the building called Kungliga Slottet, the palace was designed by Nicodemus Tessin the Younger and erected on the same place as the medieval Tre Kronor Castle which was destroyed in a fire on 7 May 1697. Due to the costly Great Northern War which started in 1700, construction of the palace was halted in 1709, when Tessin the Younger died in 1728, the palace was completed by Carl Hårleman who also designed a large part of its Rococo interior. The palace was not ready to use until 1754, when King Adolf Frederick and Queen Louisa Ulrika moved in, as of 2009 the interior of the palace consists of 1,430 rooms of which 660 have windows. The palace contains apartments for the Royal families, representation and festivities such as the State Apartments, the Guest Apartments, the National Library of Sweden was housed in the northeast wing, the Biblioteksflygeln, until 1878. As of 2014 it houses the Bernadotte Library, the Slottsarkivet is housed in the Chancery Wing. In the palace are the offices of the Royal Court of Sweden, the Royal Guards has guarded the palace and the Royal Family since 1523. A comprehensive renovation of the began in 2011, to repair weather damaged parts made from sandstone. The repairs are estimated to cost approx,500 million crowns during a period of 22 years. The first building on site was a fortress with a core tower built in the 13th century by Birger Jarl to defend Lake Mälaren. The fortress grew to a castle, eventually named Tre Kronor for the towers spire top decorated with three crowns. At the beginning of the 17th century, King Gustavus Adolphus made plans for a new royal palace, contemporaneous copperplates from 1654 shows de la Vallée’s idea of a more visible castle on a raised plateau with a connecting bridge over the Norrström. Queen Christina remodelled and embellished the castle extensively, but no new castle was built during her reign. In 1661, he presented the first draft for a conversion of the row which his son, Nicodemus Tessin the Younger, would later rework. A map of the Stadsholmen from the 1650s, illustrates de la Vallées suggestion for the conversion of the old castle, the project also brought about an adjustment of the Slottsbacken, making it partially enclosed by buildings
12.
Slottsbacken
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Slottsbacken is a street in Gamla stan, the old town in central Stockholm, Sweden. It stretches east from the Stockholm Cathedral and the Royal Palace down to the street Skeppsbron which passes along the waterfront of the old town. South of this building was in medieval times a slope consisting of sand and gravel. Probably wider than the present slope, it stretched south to the royal stables, the kitchen gardens. In 1520, the burghers of the city were requested to relocate their stables and piggeries from the Stable Slope to the surrounding the city. New defensive walls were built around the palace during the 16th century on the expense of the open area surrounding it. Parts of the five metres deep moat was used as a theatre, while the exterior of the Palace was more or less completed in the 1750s, the work on the slope, the palaces main approach, was still proceeding by the end of that century. Though the four façades of the Royal Palace are all built in brick and bound by a unitary programme, the southern façade, representing the Nation and concealing the Royal Chapel and the Rikssal, is facing the palaces main approach and is consequently the most pompous of the four. It is dominated by a Roman triumphal arch composition dressed in limestone and furnished with six war trophies, four scenes by Bouchardon. The balustrade over the part was originally intended to be furnished with a series of sculptures. The statues in the eight niches, dating from 1899–1902, depict prominent Swedes from the late 17th century, Dahlbergh, M. Stenbock, Stiernhielm, Polhem, Tessin, Adelcrantz, Linnaeus and von Dalin. The five sections of the eastern façade of the Stockholm Cathedral reflects the three original, medieval nave and aisles and the two aisles. He was the head of the church 1543-1552 and is buried in it, the building is, however, occupied by the Royal Household. The lime stone portal by Ferdinand Foucquet, one of the most prominent monumental sculptors of the Swedish Baroque era, the façade was originally flanked by two walls perpendicular to the façade. The building is today the residence of the county governor of Stockholm, finland was a part of Sweden until 1809, and the national parish of the Finnish Church was established in Stockholm in 1533, at the time accommodated in the old abbey of the Blackfriars. In the interior, the organ loft still resembles the gallery of the old Boll House, as the church never had an accompanying graveyard, the Church of Catherine on Södermalm was of great importance to the Finnish parish until the 19th century. The 22 metres tall granite obelisk from 1800, is the design of architect Jean Louis Desprez, inspired by Egyptian obelisks, it tapers vertically to end in a pyramid-like shape, but is, in contrast, made of several stones. The Royal Coin Cabinet is an institution with a responsibility for the conservation and the historical studies of coins, medals
13.
Storkyrkobrinken
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Storkyrkobrinken is a street in Gamla stan, the old town in central Stockholm, Sweden. The streets present name stems from the vicinity to the cathedral Storkyrkan, since the Middle Ages, the street and various sections of it appears under different names referring to various activities and prominent buildings. In medieval times, Storkyrkobrinken was the main slope leading up to the church on the top of Stadsholmen. The crossing street Västerlånggatan was the street passing outside the city wall on the western side. A century later it was named after the school built in the street in 1431, in 1520 it is thus called Scolestue backen and in 1571 the section west of Västerlånggatan is named skolstuffue grenden. During the 16th century it appears as Kyrkobrinken in 1596 and as S. Niclaes Brinck in 1597. During the so-called era of the Swedish Empire, attempts were made to various structures in the present old town to give them names more to the taste of the ambitions of the era. In 1650, however, it appears as Store kyrke brincken, lastly it appears as Scholstugu gr in 1733, before being named Storkyrko Brinken in 1771. List of streets and squares in Gamla stan History of Stockholm Innerstaden, hitta. se - location map and virtual walk
14.
Stortorget
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Stortorget is a small public square in Gamla Stan, the old town in central Stockholm, Sweden. It is the oldest square in Stockholm, the centre on which the medieval urban conglomeration gradually came into being. Today, the square is frequented by tens of thousands of tourists annually and it is traditionally renowned for its annual Christmas market offering traditional handicrafts and food. The exception being the Stock Exchange Building taking up the side of the square and concealing the Cathedral. Today, Stortorget is the location of the Stock Exchange Building, which houses the Swedish Academy, the Nobel Museum, the plan of the building, French Rococo in style, is a trapezium, the rounded corner of which greatly widened the flanking alleys. While the building is designed much like a private palace, the central pediment. The closed first floor, accommodating the Swedish Academy, contrasts the openness of the ground floor - a contrast enhanced during the restoration in the 1980s, the present well on the square was also designed by Palmstedt and built in connection to the new Stock Exchange Building. It dried up in 1856 due to elevation, however. It was relocated to Brunkebergstorg but moved back to its location in the 1950s and is today connected to the city water conduit. He bought the building came to remain in the familys possession for more than a century. The cloverleaf-shaped gables were added in 1718 together with the blue livid colour, the Dynastys most prominent member was the merchant Claës Grill, leader of the East India Company, owner of several banks and many mining industries and shipping companies, and a great art collector. In the second shop on Number 5 are painted joists from the 1640s displaying animals, flowers. There are many such restored ceilings in Gamla stan, but this one is one of the few accessible to the general public, on the first floor is the so-called Bullkyrkan where the City Mission offers services every Sunday together with buns, sandwiches, and coffee. Until the mid-15th century, the side of the square was lined with wooden shops, in the spacious basements of which peasants kept their provisions. Among the numerous historical tenants in the building was adventurer Filip Kern from Meissen and he served as a barber and a master builder for King John III and is suspected to have poisoned King Eric XIV. During the reign of Gustavus Adolphus, the Dutch merchant Abraham Cabiljau, one of the founders and first mayors of Gothenburg, lived in the building. The French wig maker Jean Bedoire bought the building in 1682 and, just like his son and namesake who gave his name to the alley Bedoirsgränd, made a fortune in trading wine, salt, and iron. The building was rebuilt in 1937 when the façades of the three buildings located south of the square were united to form the present façade
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Swedish Academy
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The Swedish Academy, founded in 1786 by King Gustav III, is one of the Royal Academies of Sweden. It is known for making the decision on who will be the laureate for the Nobel Prize in Literature. The Swedish Academy was founded in 1786 by King Gustav III, modelled after the Académie française, it has 18 members. The motto of the Academy is Talent and Taste, the primary purpose of the Academy is to further the purity, strength, and sublimity of the Swedish language. To that end the Academy publishes two dictionaries, the first is a one-volume glossary called Svenska Akademiens ordlista. The second is a dictionary, edited on principles similar to those of the Oxford English Dictionary. The SAOL has reached its 14th edition while the first volume of the SAOB was published in 1898 and, as of 2014, the building now known as the Stockholm Stock Exchange Building was built for the bourgeoisie. The bottom floor was used as an exchange and the upper floor was used for balls, New Years Eve parties. When the academy was founded, the ballroom was the biggest room in Stockholm that could be heated and thus used in the winter, the academy has had its annual meeting there every year since, attended by members of the Swedish royal family. However, it was not until 1914 the academy gained the right to use the floor as their own for all eternity. It is here that the Academy meets and, amongst other business, the latter makes it arguably one of the most influential literary bodies in the world. Dag Hammarskjölds former farm at Backåkra, close to Ystad in southern Sweden, was bought in 1957 as a residence by Hammarskjöld. The south wing of the farm is reserved as a retreat for the 18 members of the Swedish Academy. Since 1901, the Academy has annually decided who will be the laureate for the Nobel Prize in Literature, the Swedish Academy annually awards nearly 50 different prizes and scholarships, most of them for domestic Swedish authors. Common to all is that they are awarded without competition and without application, the Dobloug Prize, the largest of these at $40,000, is a literature prize awarded for Swedish and Norwegian fiction. Swedish, Stora Priset, literally the Big Prize, was instituted by King Gustav III, the prize, which consists of a single gold medal, is the most prestigious award that can be awarded by the Swedish Academy. It has been awarded to, among others, Selma Lagerlöf, Herbert Tingsten, Astrid Lindgren, Evert Taube, the Academy awards around 50 prizes each year. A person does not have to apply nor compete for the prizes, full list of awards The current permanent secretary of the Academy is Sara Danius, who was preceded by Peter Englund
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Nobel Museum
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The Nobel Museum is a museum devoted to circulate information on the Nobel Prize, Nobel laureates from 1901 to present, and the life of the founder of the prize, Alfred Nobel. A very interesting part of the museum is the gallery where artifacts donated by Nobel Laureates are showcased accompanied with fun and personal life stories. To achieve these aims, the museum exhibitions, films, theatre plays, and debates related to science, besides the regular book and souvenir shops. The museum boasts exhibitions featuring celebrities such as Marie Curie, Nelson Mandela, besides that, they often offer creative exhibitions such as their current exhibition Sketches of science. Sketches of Science is an exhibition with 42 Nobel Laureates photographed with their own sketch of their Nobel discovery. The exhibition is a fun and playful way to present the Laureates. This exhibition has been showed in other parts of the world as well, such as Dubai, the museum opened in the spring of 2001 for the 100th anniversary of the Nobel Prize. For visitors who want to bring a piece of the home, a souvenir shop is available that contains items about Alfred Nobel. One of the most popular items is Alfred Nobels gold medal made in dark fair trade chocolate, another one is the Swedish dynamite candy that is flavored with jalapeño pepper. During 2011, the souvenir shop collaborated with the artist Artan Mansouri who made paintings that symbolized Alfred Nobels life. Besides that, the shop offers a lot of toys for children, books by and about Nobel Prize Laureates. Besides offering a Nobel Museum shop, there also is a Bistro Nobel where you can eat Nobel chocolate, Swedish cakes, at the bistro, the famous Nobel ice cream is served as well, this ice cream can only be found in the Nobel Bistro. A perfect match with the Nobel ice-cream is the Nobel tea that is served every year at the Nobel banquet. Nobel Peace Center List of Nobel laureates Nobel Prize controversies Official site
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Birger Jarl
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Birger Jarl, or Birger Magnusson, was a Swedish statesman, Jarl of Sweden and a member of the House of Bjelbo, who played a pivotal role in the consolidation of Sweden. Birger also led the Second Swedish Crusade, which established Swedish rule in Finland, additionally, he is traditionally attributed to have founded the Swedish capital, Stockholm around 1250. Birger used the Latin title of Dux Sweorum which in English equals Duke of Sweden, and it is known that Birger grew up and spent his adolescence in Bjälbo, Östergötland but the exact date of his birth remains uncertain and available historical sources are contradictory. Examinations of his mortal remains indicate that he was probably about 50 upon his death in 1266 which would indicate a birth around 1216. However, his father Magnus Minnesköld is assumed to have died no later than 1210 and his brothers or half-brothers — Eskil, Karl, and Bengt — were all born long before 1200, and it can therefore be assumed that they had another mother. He was also a nephew of the jarl Birger Brosa from the House of Bjelbo, the combination of this background proved to be of vital importance. During the 15 years to follow, Birger then consolidated his position and was one of the most influential men years before being formally given the title jarl in 1248 by King Eric XI. Although Birger Jarl saw many battles, some have speculated that traces of a blow in Birgers cranium might have originated from this battle. However, the original 14th-century Russian version of the battle had no information on this at all, in 1247, royal troops led by Birger at the Battle of Sparrsätra fought with Folkung forces led by pretender Holmger Knutsson, son of King Canute II. The Folkungs lost the battle and were unable to resist the central government, Holmger Knutsson fled to Gästrikland and was captured there by Birger in the following year. Quickly brought to trial, he was beheaded, in 1249, Birger succeeded in ending a decades-long period of hostilities with Norway. As a part of the Treaty of Lödöse, he managed to marry off his daughter Rikissa, then only 11 years old, to Haakon Haakonsson the Young. Presumably later that year, Birger led an expedition to Finland, later dubbed as the Second Swedish Crusade, on King Erics death in 1250, Birgers son Valdemar was elected as the new king while Birger acted as regent, holding the true power in Sweden until his death. Birger thus combined financial support from Germany with papal political support to consolidate his own position, ingeborg died in 1254 and in 1261 Birger married the widow of King Abel of Denmark, the Danish queen dowager, Matilda of Holstein. Birger died on 21 October 1266, at Jälbolung in Västergötland and his grave in Varnhem Abbey was opened in May 2002. There is a cenotaph for him at the base of the tower of Stockholm City Hall and it was originally intended that his remains be removed there, but this was never done. Several other historical structures there are named for him including the street Birger Jarlsgatan on Norrmalm. The Hotel Birger Jarl is located in Stockholms Norrmalm neighborhood and he is also the central figure of Bröllopet på Ulvåsa by Frans Hedberg
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Riddarholm Church
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The Riddarholm Church is the burial church of the Swedish monarchs. It is located on the island of Riddarholmen, close to the Royal Palace in Stockholm, the congregation was dissolved in 1807 and today the church is used only for burial and commemorative purposes. Swedish monarchs from Gustavus Adolphus to Gustaf V are entombed here, as well as the earlier monarchs Magnus III and it has been discontinued as a royal burial site in favor of the Royal Cemetery and today is run by departments of the Swedish Government and Royal Court. It is one of the oldest buildings in Stockholm, parts of it dating to the late 13th century, after the Protestant Reformation, the monastery was closed and the building transformed into a Protestant church. A spire designed by Willem Boy was added during the reign of John III, coats of arms of knights of the Order of the Seraphim are on the walls of the church. When a knight of the Order dies, his coat of arms is hung in the church, gamla stan Storkyrkan The Riddarholm Church at the Royal Courts website
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Lutheranism
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Lutheranism is a major branch of Protestant Christianity which identifies with the theology of Martin Luther, a German friar, ecclesiastical reformer and theologian. Luthers efforts to reform the theology and practice of the Catholic Church launched the Protestant Reformation in the German-speaking territories of the Holy Roman Empire. Lutheranism advocates a doctrine of justification by grace alone through faith alone on the basis of Scripture alone and this is in contrast to the belief of the Catholic Church, defined at the Council of Trent, concerning authority coming from both the Scriptures and Tradition. In addition, Lutheranism accepts the teachings of the first seven ecumenical councils of the undivided Christian Church, unlike Calvinism, Lutherans retain many of the liturgical practices and sacramental teachings of the pre-Reformation Church, with a particular emphasis on the Eucharist, or Lords Supper. Lutheran theology differs from Reformed theology in Christology, the purpose of Gods Law, the grace, the concept of perseverance of the saints. Today, Lutheranism is one of the largest denominations of Protestantism, with approximately 80 million adherents, it constitutes the third most common Protestant denomination after historically Pentecostal denominations and Anglicanism. The Lutheran World Federation, the largest communion of Lutheran churches, Other Lutheran organizations include the International Lutheran Council and the Confessional Evangelical Lutheran Conference, as well as independent churches. The name Lutheran originated as a term used against Luther by German Scholastic theologian Dr. Johann Maier von Eck during the Leipzig Debate in July 1519. Eck and other Catholics followed the practice of naming a heresy after its leader. Martin Luther always disliked the term Lutheran, preferring the term Evangelical, which was derived from euangelion, the followers of John Calvin, Huldrych Zwingli, and other theologians linked to the Reformed tradition also began to use that term. To distinguish the two groups, others began to refer to the two groups as Evangelical Lutheran and Evangelical Reformed. As time passed by, the word Evangelical was dropped, Lutherans themselves began to use the term Lutheran in the middle of the 16th century, in order to distinguish themselves from other groups such as the Philippists and Calvinists. In 1597, theologians in Wittenberg defined the title Lutheran as referring to the true church, Lutheranism has its roots in the work of Martin Luther, who sought to reform the Western Church to what he considered a more biblical foundation. Lutheranism spread through all of Scandinavia during the 16th century, as the monarch of Denmark–Norway, through Baltic-German and Swedish rule, Lutheranism also spread into Estonia and Latvia. Since 1520, regular Lutheran services have been held in Copenhagen, under the reign of Frederick I, Denmark-Norway remained officially Catholic. Although Frederick initially pledged to persecute Lutherans, he adopted a policy of protecting Lutheran preachers and reformers. During Fredericks reign, Lutheranism made significant inroads in Denmark, at an open meeting in Copenhagen attended by the king in 1536, the people shouted, We will stand by the holy Gospel, and do not want such bishops anymore. Fredericks son Christian was openly Lutheran, which prevented his election to the throne upon his fathers death, however, following his victory in the civil war that followed, in 1537 he became Christian III and advanced the Reformation in Denmark-Norway
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Protestantism
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Protestantism is a form of Christianity which originated with the Reformation, a movement against what its followers considered to be errors in the Roman Catholic Church. It is one of the three divisions of Christendom, together with Roman Catholicism and Orthodoxy. The term derives from the letter of protestation from German Lutheran princes in 1529 against an edict of the Diet of Speyer condemning the teachings of Martin Luther as heretical. Although there were earlier breaks from or attempts to reform the Roman Catholic Church—notably by Peter Waldo, John Wycliffe, Protestants reject the notion of papal supremacy and deny the Roman Catholic doctrine of transubstantiation, but disagree among themselves regarding the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist. The Five solae summarize the reformers basic differences in theological beliefs, in the 16th century, Lutheranism spread from Germany into Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland, the Baltic states, and Iceland. Reformed churches were founded in Germany, Hungary, the Netherlands, Scotland, Switzerland and France by such reformers as John Calvin, Huldrych Zwingli, the political separation of the Church of England from Rome under King Henry VIII brought England and Wales into this broad Reformation movement. Protestants developed their own culture, which made major contributions in education, the humanities and sciences, the political and social order, the economy and the arts, some Protestant denominations do have a worldwide scope and distribution of membership, while others are confined to a single country. A majority of Protestants are members of a handful of families, Adventism, Anglicanism, Baptist churches, Reformed churches, Lutheranism, Methodism. Nondenominational, evangelical, charismatic, independent and other churches are on the rise, and constitute a significant part of Protestant Christianity. Six princes of the Holy Roman Empire and rulers of fourteen Imperial Free Cities, the edict reversed concessions made to the Lutherans with the approval of Holy Roman Emperor Charles V three years earlier. During the Reformation, the term was used outside of the German politics. The word evangelical, which refers to the gospel, was more widely used for those involved in the religious movement. Nowadays, this word is still preferred among some of the historical Protestant denominations in the Lutheran and Calvinist traditions in Europe, above all the term is used by Protestant bodies in the German-speaking area, such as the EKD. In continental Europe, an Evangelical is either a Lutheran or a Calvinist, the German word evangelisch means Protestant, and is different from the German evangelikal, which refers to churches shaped by Evangelicalism. The English word evangelical usually refers to Evangelical Protestant churches, and it traces its roots back to the Puritans in England, where Evangelicalism originated, and then was brought to the United States. Protestantism as a term is now used in contradistinction to the other major Christian traditions, i. e. Roman Catholicism. Initially, Protestant became a term to mean any adherent to the Reformation movement in Germany and was taken up by Lutherans. Even though Martin Luther himself insisted on Christian or Evangelical as the only acceptable names for individuals who professed Christ, French and Swiss Protestants preferred the word reformed, which became a popular, neutral and alternative name for Calvinists
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Archdiocese of Uppsala
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The Archdiocese of Uppsala is one of the thirteen dioceses of the Church of Sweden and the only one having the status of an archdiocese. Uppsala is the seat of the Lutheran Archbishop of Uppsala, the diocese, which has its centre in the city of Uppsala, covers Uppsala County, Gävleborg County and parts of Stockholm County and Västmanland County. As of 2005 the archdiocese consists of 201 parishes distributed over 86 larger parishes, as the archbishop besides being head of Uppsala diocese also has a central role in the Church of Sweden on a national level. Since 2014, the position of archbishop is held by the Most Reverend Antje Jackelén, an additional position as assistant bishop in Uppsala diocese was created in 1990. This office has held by the Right Reverend Tord Harlin. When St. Ansgar, the Apostle of the North, went to Sweden in 829, the Swedes were still heathen and the country contained many sacrificial groves and temples for the worship of Germanic pagan idols. One of the most celebrated of the latter was the temple at Uppsala in what is now called Old Uppsala, even after Christianity had spread through Sweden, heathen sacrifices were still maintained at Uppsala. None is permitted to avoid participation in the feast, more horrible than any punishment is that even those who have become Christians must purchase exemption from participation in the feast. The sacrifices are made thus, Nine heads are offered for every living creature of the male sex, by the blood of these the gods are appeased. The bodies are hung up in a grove not far from the temple, dogs and horses may be seen hanging close by human beings, a Christian told me he had seen seventy-two bodies hanging together. An episcopal see was established at Old Uppsala, one of the bishops was St. Henry, who took part in the Crusade to Finland led by king Saint Eric IX of Sweden and suffered martyrdom there in 1157. The bishops of Sweden were first suffragans of the Archdiocese of Hamburg-Bremen, afterwards the Swedish bishops were suffragans of the Archbishop of Lund in Denmark, then Primate of Scandinavia. In 1152 Cardinal Nicholas of Albano, later Pope Adrian IV, visited Sweden and he had been commissioned to establish an independent Church province in Sweden, but the matter was deferred, as the Swedes could not agree upon the see of the archbishop. In 1164 Pope Alexander III established an ecclesiastical province of Sweden with the see at Uppsala. The suffragans were the Bishops of Skara, Linköping, Strängnäs and Västerås, at a date the diocese of Växjö. The first Archbishop of Uppsala was Stephen, a Cistercian monk from the celebrated Alvastra Abbey, Cardinal William of Sabina came as papal legate to Sweden during the archiepiscopate of Jarler, a Dominican monk. The legate had been commissioned, among other things, to establish cathedral chapters wherever such were lacking, another important matter which the legate had been ordered to carry out was the enforcement of the law of clerical celibacy. At a provincial synod held at Skänninge in 1248 under the presidency of the cardinal, the pious and energetic Archbishop Jarler and his successor Laurentius, a Franciscan, constantly strove to elevate the clergy and to enforce the law of celibacy
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Tre Kronor (castle)
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Tre Kronor was a castle located in Stockholm, Sweden, on the site where Stockholm Palace is today. It is believed to have been a citadel that Birger Jarl built into a castle in the middle of the 13th century. The name Tre Kronor is believed to have given to the castle during the reign of King Magnus IV in the middle of the 14th century. Most of Swedens national library and royal archives were destroyed when the castle burned down in 1697, when King Gustav Vasa broke Sweden free from the Kalmar Union and made Sweden independent again, Tre Kronor Castle became his most important royal seat. The keep may have existed previous to the 16th century, but in a smaller form than on the pictures from the beginning. The tower was then about the half of the height in the end of the 16th century, the castle consisted of two parts, the main castle and the walled in gardens surrounding it with the high tower in the middle. On May 7,1697 a large fire broke out in Tre Kronor that completely demolished the majority of this now more-than-400-year-old castle, the fire was discovered by the castles keeper, Georg Stiernhoff. The fire marshal, Sven Lindberg, informed the staff that he could not get to the fire extinguishing equipment because the fire blocked his access to it. The royal family and court were forced to evacuate the castle, the servants attempted to save as much as possible of the royal possessions. The fire spread quickly to all parts of the castle, since the castle was made out of wood and copper, the hot copper plates set the roof on fire. As mentioned, due to the fire most of Swedens national library, shortly after the fire died out, the investigation into why it was not discovered before it was too late got underway. A royal court found three possible culprits, Sven Lindberg – the fire marshal for the castle – and Anders Andersson and Mattias Hansson, soldiers on fire watch for the night, reporting to Sven Lindberg. It is revealed that Anders Andersson was running an errand for the fire marshals wife, Mattias Hansson had left his post, going into the kitchen to get some food. Mattias claimed that the fire marshals wife had given permission to do so – a statement she denied, the royal court concluded that the fire marshal had used the soldier for his and his wifes private errands. It was also found that he had accepted bribes in exchange for hiring people into certain positions at the castle, in February,1698 the sentences were handed out. Sven Lindberg and Mattias Hanson were sentenced to death since they had neglected their duty. Anders Andersson was sentenced to run the gauntlet, the death sentences were both later commuted to running the gauntlet and six years of forced labour at Carlsten fortress. Sven Lindberg died while running the gauntlet, plans were made to rebuild a new castle on the old foundation
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Oscar II of Sweden
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Oscar II was King of Sweden from 1872 until his death and King of Norway from 1872 until his dethronement in 1905. He was the third of four sons of King Oscar I, as his eldest brother Charles XV was without heirs and his brother Prince Gustaf died in 1852, it was he who succeeded his brother as king. Oscar II was king during a period when Sweden was undergoing a period of industrialization, the declining Union of Sweden and Norway was finally dissolved in 1905 and Oscar became the last Bernadotte king of Norway. He died in 1907 and was succeed as King of Sweden by his son, at his birth in Stockholm, Oscar Fredrik was created Duke of Östergötland. He entered the navy at the age of eleven, and was appointed lieutenant in July 1845. Later he studied at Uppsala University, where he distinguished himself in mathematics, on 13 December 1848, he was made an honorary member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences. On 6 June 1857 he married in Wiesbaden-Biebrich, Germany, Princess Sophia Wilhelmina, from 1859, when his father died, he was first in line to the Swedish throne after his oldest brother King Charles, who then had no male heirs. His middle brother Gustaf had died in 1852 and he succeeded his brother Charles XV / IV on 18 September 1872. At the accession he adopted as his motto Brödrafolkens väl / Broderfolkenes Vel, the political events which led up to the peaceful dissolution of the union between Norway and Sweden in 1905 could hardly have been attained but for the tact and patience of the king himself. He was dethroned on 7 June 1905 by the Norwegian Parliament and he declined, indeed, to permit any prince of his house to become king of Norway, but better relations between the two countries were restored before his death. He died in Stockholm on 8 December 1907 at 9,10 AM and his acute intelligence and his aloofness from the dynastic considerations affecting most European sovereigns gave the king considerable weight as an arbitrator in international questions. At the request of Great Britain, Germany and the United States in 1889 he appointed the justice of Samoa. He was the 1, 027th Knight of the Order of the Golden Fleece in Spain, the office of prime minister was instituted in 1876. Louis De Geer became the first head of government in Sweden to use this title, the most known and powerful first minister of the Crown during the reign of Oscar was the conservative estate owner Erik Gustaf Boström. Boström served as Prime Minister in 1891-1900 and 1902-1905 and he was trusted and respected by the king, who had much difficulty approving someone else as prime minister. Over a period of time, the king gave Boström a free hand to select his own ministers without much royal involvement and it was an arrangement that furthered the road to parliamentarism. Himself a distinguished writer and musical amateur, King Oscar proved a friend of learning. In 1858 a collection of his lyrical and narrative poems, Memorials of the Swedish Fleet, published anonymously, obtained the second prize of the Swedish Academy
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Victoria, Crown Princess of Sweden
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Victoria, Crown Princess of Sweden, Duchess of Västergötland, is the eldest child and heir apparent of King Carl XVI Gustaf. If she ascends to the throne as expected, she will be Swedens fourth queen regnant and the first since 1720. Victoria was born on 14 July 1977 at 21,45 CET at the Karolinska University Hospital in Solna, Stockholm County, Sweden and she is a member of the Royal House of Bernadotte. Born as a Princess of Sweden, she was designated Crown Princess in 1979 ahead of her younger brother and her place as first in the line of succession formally went into effect on 1 January 1980 with the parliamentary change to the Act of Succession that introduced absolute primogeniture. Her given names honour various relatives and she was christened at The Royal Palace Church on 27 September 1977. Her godparents were Crown Prince Harald of Norway, her uncle, Ralf Sommerlath, Princess Beatrix of the Netherlands. The Crown Princess was confirmed in the summer of 1992 at Räpplinge church on the island of Öland. Victoria studied for a year at the Université Catholique de lOuest at Angers in France, from 1998 to 2000, Victoria resided in the United States, where she studied various subjects at Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut. In May 1999, she was an intern at the Swedish Embassy in Washington, Victoria completed a study program at the Government Offices in 2001. In 2003, Victorias education continued with visits to Swedish businesses, in 2006, Victoria enrolled in the Ministry for Foreign Affairs Diplomat Program, running from September 2006 to June 2007. The program is a program for young future diplomats and gives an insight to the ministrys work, Swedish foreign and security policies. In June 2009, she graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree from Uppsala University and she speaks Swedish, English, French and German. She was made Crown Princess and heir apparent on 1 January 1980 by the 1979 change to the Act of Succession of 1810 and this constitutional reform meant that the throne would be inherited by the monarchs eldest child without regard to gender. King Carl XVI Gustaf objected to the reform after it occurred because he favoured tradition, when she became heir, she also was made titular Duchess of Västergötland, one of the historical provinces of Sweden. Prior to this change, the heir apparent to the throne was her younger brother. He is now fourth in line to the throne, behind the Crown Princesss daughter and she is one of only three female heirs apparent in the world – the other two being her goddaughter Catharina-Amalia, Princess of Orange, and Princess Elisabeth, Duchess of Brabant. Victorias declaration of majority took place in the Hall of State at the Royal Palace of Stockholm on 14 July 1995, as of the day she turned 18, she became eligible to act as Head of State when the King is not in country. Victoria made her first public speech on this occasion, located on the dais in the background was the same silver throne on which her father was seated at his enthronement, in actual use from 1650 and up until this ceremony
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Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden
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Carl XVI Gustaf is the King of Sweden. He ascended the throne upon the death of his grandfather, King Gustaf VI Adolf on 15 September 1973 and he is the youngest child and only son of Prince Gustaf Adolf, Duke of Västerbotten, and Princess Sibylla of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha. The Kings heir apparent, upon passage on 1 January 1980 of a new law establishing absolute primogeniture, is Crown Princess Victoria, Carl Gustaf was born on 30 April 1946 at 10,20 in Haga Palace in Solna, Stockholm County. He was the youngest of five children and the son of Swedens Prince Gustaf Adolf. He was christened at the Royal Chapel on 7 June 1946 by the Archbishop of Uppsala and he was baptized in Charles XIs baptismal font, which stood on Gustav IIIs carpet and he lay in Charles XIs cradle with Oscar IIs crown beside him. The same christening gown in white linen batiste which the prince carried had been worn by his father in 1906, Prince Carl Gustaf was also given the title of the Duke of Jämtland. His father, Prince Gustaf Adolf, Duke of Västerbotten, was killed in a crash on 26 January 1947. His fathers death had left the prince second in line for the throne, behind his grandfather. When his great-grandfather Gustaf V died in 1950, the prince became the heir apparent of Sweden. Carl Gustaf was seven years old before he was told about his fathers death, after graduating from high school, Carl Gustaf completed two and a half years of education in the Royal Swedish Army, the Royal Swedish Navy, and the Royal Swedish Air Force. He received his commission as an officer in all three services in 1968, and he rose to the rank of captain and lieutenant. He has also completed his studies in history, sociology, political science, tax law. In addition, he studied the affairs of the Riksdag, Government. On 15 September 1973, Carl Gustaf became King of Sweden upon the death of his grandfather, on September 19, he took the required regal assurance during an extraordinary meeting of the cabinet. Afterwards, he appeared before the parliament, diplomatic corps, court, both the cabinet meeting and ceremony at the Hall were broadcast live on television. Following the ceremonies, he appeared on the balcony to acknowledge gathered crowds, at the cabinet meeting, the King declared that his name would be Carl XVI Gustaf and that his title would be King of Sweden. He adopted, For Sweden – With the times as his personal motto, when Carl Gustaf ascended the throne, plans were already in place to replace the 1809 Instrument of Government which gave the King extensive involvement with government. Though the King was a near-autocrat on paper, the Riksdags authority grew steadily into the early 20th century, in 1914, Gustaf V made a speech which resulted in what is known as the Courtyard Crisis wherein he was accused of interfering with politics
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Queen Silvia of Sweden
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Queen Silvia of Sweden is the spouse of King Carl XVI Gustaf and mother of the heir apparent to the throne, Crown Princess Victoria. In 2011, Silvia became the longest serving queen of Sweden, Silvia Renate Sommerlath was born in Heidelberg, Germany, on 23 December 1943, the only daughter of the late Alice and Walther Sommerlath. Her father was German and her mother was Brazilian and she has two older brothers, Ralf and Walther Sommerlath. They and their families were guests at the 2010 wedding of Victoria, Crown Princess of Sweden, and Daniel Westling and her third brother, Jörg Sommerlath, died in 2006. The Mother-Child House Jörg Sommerlath in Berlin, operated by Queen Silvias World Childhood Foundation, is named after him, the family returned to West Germany in 1957. She briefly worked as a flight attendant, a trained interpreter, Swedish is actually her sixth language. She speaks her native German, her mothers language of Portuguese, as well as French, Spanish and she has some fluency in Swedish Sign Language, a national sign language used by the deaf community in Sweden. During the 1972 Summer Olympics, Silvia Sommerlath met Crown Prince Carl Gustaf, in a later interview, the King explained how it just clicked when they met. After the death of King Gustaf VI Adolf on 15 September 1973 and he and Silvia announced their engagement on 12 March 1976 and were married three months later, on 19 June in Stockholm Cathedral in Stockholm. It was the first marriage of a reigning Swedish monarch since 1797, If he had married Silvia during the reign of his grandfather, King Gustaf VI Adolf, he would have lost his position as heir-apparent to the Swedish throne. This was due to the inflexibility of his grandfather, who believed that royalty must marry royalty and this was also the reason why Carl Gustafs uncle, Prince Bertil, did not marry until after Gustaf VI Adolfs death. The King and Queen of Sweden have three children and five grandchildren, Crown Princess Victoria, Duchess of Västergötland. She is married to Daniel Westling, and they have a daughter and he is married to Sofia Hellqvist, and they have a son, Prince Alexander, Duke of Södermanland Princess Madeleine, Duchess of Hälsingland and Gästrikland. As the Swedish newspaper Svenska Dagbladet noted in 1994, on the occasion of the Queens 50th birthday and you could put it that way. Even if Silvias arrival was like kicking someone lying down, or hitting a guy with glasses. The guy with glasses was mostly to be found with the Social Democrats, a few lines in the party manifesto, ever more vague over the years. It has always been there, but nobody has ever done anything to implement it, as she told the Swedish news agency TT, If a person is hurt too much, the natural reaction is to withdraw. That is a pity, because I really think our children are natural and open toward other people
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Saint George and the Dragon
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The legend gradually became part of the Christian traditions relating to Saint George and was used in many festivals thereafter. In the tenth-century Georgian narrative, the place is the city of Lasia. The town had a lake with a plague-bearing dragon living in it. To appease the dragon, the people of Silene fed it two sheep every day, when they ran out of sheep they started feeding it their children, chosen by lottery. One time the lot fell on the kings daughter, the king, in his grief, told the people they could have all his gold and silver and half of his kingdom if his daughter were spared, the people refused. The daughter was sent out to the lake, dressed as a bride, Saint George by chance rode past the lake. The princess tried to send him away, but he vowed to remain, the dragon emerged from the lake while they were conversing. Saint George made the Sign of the Cross and charged it on horseback and he then called to the princess to throw him her girdle, and he put it around the dragons neck. When she did so, the dragon followed the girl like a meek beast on a leash, the princess and Saint George led the dragon back to the city of Silene, where it terrified the populace. Saint George offered to kill the dragon if they consented to become Christians, fifteen thousand men including the king of Silene converted to Christianity. George then killed the dragon, and the body was carted out of the city on four ox-carts. The king built a church to the Blessed Virgin Mary and Saint George on the site where the dragon died, eastern The oldest icons depicting the saint as a horseman killing the dragon date to the 12th century. Older icons from Georgia show George as a horseman slaying an enemy rather than a dragon. The motif becomes popular especially in Georgian and Russian tradition, the saint is depicted in the style of a Roman cavalryman in the tradition of the Thracian Heros. In Russian tradition, the icon is known as Чудо Георгия о змие, i. e. the miracle of George, the saint is mostly shown on a white horse, facing right, but sometimes also on a black horse, or facing left. The princess is not included. Some icons show George killing the dragon on foot, another motif shows George on horseback with the youth of Mytilene sitting behind him. Icons of Saint George killing the dragon on foot, Western The motif of Saint George as a knight on horseback slaying the dragon first appears in art in the second half of the 13th century
28.
Bernt Notke
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Bernt Notke was a late Gothic artist, working in the Baltic region. He has been described as one of the foremost artists of his time in northern Europe, very little is known about the life of Bernt Notke. The Notke family came from Tallinn and his father was probably the trader and ship-owner Michel Notke and his mother was probably Michels second wife Gertraut, who was from Visby. Bernt Notke was born in the town of Lassan in Pomerania. He was married, but the name of his wife remains unknown, she died before he did and is not mentioned in his last will and testament. The couple is known to have had two daughters, one named Anneke and another whose name has not been preserved and who seems to have suffered from intellectual disability. He seems to have spent part of his youth in Flanders and he probably worked in the workshop of tapestry weaver Pasquier Grenier in Tournai, where he learnt to work on art objects of a large scale. He probably also learnt how to divide the labour in a workshop in a way there, as several of his own works were large. He is mentioned in sources for the first time by the city council of Lübeck on 14 April 1467. In 1479 he acquired a house on Breite Strasse, a prestigious address in Lübeck. After 1497 he lived in Lübeck until his death in 1509, in 1505 he acquired the title of Werkmeister at the Church of Saint Peter. This was also the case with Bernt Notke, who was the head of such a workshop, during renovation of the large triumphal cross made by Notke in 1470–77, a note signed by Notke and five co-workers was discovered in a hollow part of one of the sculptures. It lists, apart from Notke himself, a carpenter, a painter, the question whether Notke was first and foremost a painter, a woodworker or simply main organiser and entrepreneur is not clear. He was called painter by the city council of Lübeck in a document from 1467 and he and his workshop produced art in the form of tapestries, wooden sculptures, and paintings. The main type of artwork produced by the workshop of Bernt Notke was altarpieces, encyclopædia Britannica claims that he was also active as an engraver, but this claim is not found in other sources. It was lost or destroyed but survived in the form of a copy, made in 1701, until 1942, a second Danse Macabre, made at approximately the same time as the one in Lübeck, survives in part Tallinn, in St. Nicholas Church. It has been suggested that the fragment in Tallinn may have been a cut out from the Lübeck Danse Macabre. Regardless, both display the characteristic vivid expressionism that would become characteristic for Notke, in 1470 –1478, Notke executed a very large sculpture group, a so-called triumphal cross for display in Lübeck Cathedral
29.
Battle of Brunkeberg
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The Battle of Brunkeberg was fought on 10 October 1471 between the Swedish regent Sten Sture the Elder and forces led by Danish king Christian I. In May 1471, Sten Sture the Elder had been elected as Lord Protector of Sweden by the Riksmöte in Arboga, advocating Swedish secession from the Kalmar Union, Herr Sten as he was known, had garnered large support. In particular his followers were to be found among the peasantry, in Stockholm, the latter regions trading with German cities such as Lübeck often found themselves in conflict with Unions Danish foreign policy. In later times the battle was often recast for propaganda reasons as a war of liberation against Danish oppressors. In reality, most combatants on both sides were Swedish and the roots of the conflict were primarily economic and political interests, in response to the election of Sture, Christian I sailed to Sweden with a military force, intending to unseat him as Lord Protector. Mooring his ships off Skeppsholmen in Stockholm, he set up camp on Brunkebergsåsen, on Thursday 10 October, Sten Sture and Nils Bosson Sture led their troops north to the area which is Hötorget in Stockholm today, near Brunkeberg after which the battle was named. Sten Stures battle plan was to catch Christians troops in a vice, Sten would attack from the west, Nils from the east, in the ensuing battle, Christian was hit in the face by musket fire. Losing several teeth, he was forced to retire from battle, the decisive turn of battle in favor of Stures side occurred when Nils troops broke out of the forest north of the ridge, as Posses troops attacked from the city. This cut off a contingent of Danish troops at the Klara monastery north of the town, Christian retired with his troops towards the island of Käpplingen, however Stens troops destroyed the makeshift bridge Christians troops had built, causing many to drown. The battle ended in a victory for Sten Sture, Stures victory over Christian meant his power as regent of Sweden was secure and would remain so for the rest of his life. According to legend, Sture had prayed to Saint George before the battle, an altar dedicated to Saint George was also built in the church
30.
Reliquary
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A reliquary is a container for relics. These may be the purported or actual physical remains of saints, such as bones, pieces of clothing, the authenticity of any given relic is often a matter of debate, for that reason, some churches require documentation of the relics provenance. Relics have long been important to Buddhists, Christians, Hindus, in these cultures, reliquaries are often presented in shrines, churches, or temples to which the faithful make pilgrimages in order to gain blessings. Relics are venerated in the Oriental Orthodox, Eastern Orthodox, Roman Catholic, reliquaries provide a means of protecting and displaying relics. While frequently taking the form of caskets, they range in size from simple pendants or rings to very elaborate ossuaries, ivory was widely used in the Middle Ages for reliquaries, its pure white color an indication of the holy status of its contents. These objects constituted a form of artistic production across Europe. Many were designed with portability in mind, often being exhibited in public or carried in procession on the saints feast day or on holy days. Pilgrimages often centered on the veneration of relics, the faithful often venerate relics by bowing before the reliquary or kissing it. Those churches which observe the veneration of relics make a distinction between the honor given to the saints and the worship that is due to God alone. The feretrum was a form of reliquary or shrine containing the sacred effigies. In the late Middle Ages the craze for relics, many now fraudulent, became extreme, 16th-century reformers such as Martin Luther opposed the use of relics since many had no proof of historic authenticity, and they objected to the cult of saints. Nonetheless, the use and manufacture of reliquaries continues to this day, especially in Roman Catholic, post-Reformation reliquaries have tended to take the form of glass-sided caskets to display relics such as the bodies of saints. The earliest reliquaries were essentially boxes, either simply box-shaped or based on an architectural design and these latter are known by the French term chasse, and typical examples from the 12th to 14th century have wooden frameworks with gilt-copper plaques nailed on, decorated in champlevé enamel. Limoges was the largest centre of production, NB the English usage differs from that of the French châsse, relics of the True Cross became very popular from the 9th century onwards and were housed in magnificent gold and silver cross-shaped reliquaries, decorated with enamels and precious stones. Similarly, the bones of saints were often housed in reliquaries that recalled the shape of the body part. A philatory is a transparent reliquary designed to contain and exhibit the bones and this style of reliquary has a viewing portal by which to view the relic contained inside. During the later Middle Ages, the form, mostly used for consecrated hosts, was sometimes used for reliquaries. These housed the relic in a crystal or glass capsule mounted on a column above a base
31.
Relic
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In religion, a relic usually consists of the physical remains of a saint or the personal effects of the saint or venerated person preserved for purposes of veneration as a tangible memorial. Relics are an important aspect of forms of Buddhism, Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, Shamanism. Relic derives from the Latin reliquiae, meaning remains, and a form of the Latin verb relinquere, to leave behind, a reliquary is a shrine that houses one or more religious relics. In ancient Greece, a city or sanctuary might claim to possess, without necessarily displaying, the sanctuary of the Leucippides at Sparta claimed to display the egg of Leda. The bones were not regarded as holding a power derived from the hero, with some exceptions. Miracles and healing were not regularly attributed to them, rather, their presence was meant to serve a tutelary function, the bones of Orestes and Theseus were supposed to have been stolen or removed from their original resting place and reburied. Plutarch says that the Athenians were likewise instructed by the oracle to locate, the body of the legendary Eurystheus was also supposed to protect Athens from enemy attack, and in Thebes, that of the prophet Amphiaraus, whose cult was oracular and healing. As with the relics of Theseus, the bones are sometimes described in sources as gigantic. On the basis of their size, it has been conjectured that such bones were those of prehistoric creatures. The head of the poet-prophet Orpheus was supposed to have transported to Lesbos. The 2nd-century geographer Pausanias reported that the bones of Orpheus were kept in a stone vase displayed on a pillar near Dion, his place of death and these too were regarded as having oracular power, which might be accessed through dreaming in a ritual of incubation. The accidental exposure of the bones brought a disaster upon the town of Libretha, according to the Chronicon Paschale, the bones of the Persian Zoroaster were venerated, but the tradition of Zoroastrianism and its scriptures offer no support of this. In Hinduism, relics are less common than in other religions since the remains of most saints are cremated. The veneration of corporal relics may have originated with the movement or the appearance of Buddhism. In Buddhism, relics of the Buddha and various sages are venerated, after the Buddhas death, his remains were divided into eight portions. Afterward, these relics were enshrined in stupas wherever Buddhism was spread, some relics believed to be original remains of the body of the Buddha still survive, including the much-revered Sacred Relic of the tooth of the Buddha in Sri Lanka. A stupa is a building created specifically for the relics, many Buddhist temples have stupas and historically, the placement of relics in a stupa often became the initial structure around which the whole temple would be based. Today, many also hold the ashes or ringsel of prominent/respected Buddhists who were cremated
32.
Saint George
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Saint George, according to legend, was a Roman soldier of Syrian origin and officer in the Guard of Roman emperor Diocletian, who ordered his death for failing to recant his Christian faith. As a Christian martyr, he became one of the most venerated saints in Christianity. In hagiography, as one of the Fourteen Holy Helpers and one of the most prominent military saints, he is immortalised in the myth of Saint George and his memorial, Saint Georges Day, is traditionally celebrated on April 23. Numerous countries, cities, professions and organisations claim Saint George as their patron, accounts differ regarding whether George was born in Cappadocia or Syria Palaestina, but agree that he was raised at least partly in Lydda. There is little information on the life of Saint George. Two stories tell of his possible origins, one says that he was born in the region of Cappadocia, which is now located in central Turkey. Georges parents were both Christian, and they brought him up to be a Christian and his father died when he was fourteen, and his mother took George back to her homeland of Palestine. At seventeen, he joined the Roman army, a second story says that Georges father came from Cappadocia. His mother was from Lydda, in Palestine, and George was born in Lydda, both of his parents were from noble Syrian families and gave him the Greek name of Georgios. Georges father had been an officer in the Roman army, so George joined the Roman army as soon as he could, an earlier work by Eusebius, Church history, written in the 4th century, contributed to the legend but did not name George or provide significant detail. A critical edition of a Syriac Acta of Saint George, accompanied by an annotated English translation, was published by E. W. Brooks in 1925. Pope Gelasius I stated that George was among those whose names are justly reverenced among men. The traditional legends have offered a narration of Georges encounter with a dragon. The modern legend that follows below is synthesised from early and late hagiographical sources, chief among the legendary sources about the saint is the Golden Legend, which remains the most familiar version in English owing to William Caxtons 15th-century translation. At the age of 14, George lost his father, a few years later, George then decided to go to Nicomedia and present himself to Diocletian to apply for a career as a soldier. Diocletian welcomed him with arms, as he had known his father. By his late twenties, George was promoted to the rank of military tribune, however, George objected, and with the courage of his faith, approached the Emperor and ruler. Diocletian was upset, not wanting to lose his best tribune, but George loudly renounced the Emperors edict, and in front of his fellow soldiers and tribunes he claimed himself to be a Christian
33.
Olaus Petri
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Olof Persson, sometimes Petersson, better known under the Latin form of his name, Olaus Petri, was a clergyman, writer, judge and major contributor to the Protestant Reformation in Sweden. His brother, Laurentius Petri, became the first Evangelical Lutheran Archbishop of Sweden, born in Örebro, in south-central Sweden and the son of a local blacksmith, Olaus Petri learned to read and write at the local Carmelite monastery. He then went to the capital and studied at the University of Uppsala, later, he attended the University of Leipzig until 1516, and finally finished his education and received a Masters degree at the University of Wittenberg in February 1518. While in Wittenberg with his younger brother Lars, Olaus met with and was influenced by the characters of the German reformation, Philipp Melanchthon. Both Petri brothers returned to Sweden in 1519, nearly dying as their ship ran aground on Gotland island during a storm and they remained on Gotland for a while, with Olaus preaching and assisting the local priest, Soren Norby, and Lars teaching at the local school. When Olaus expressed his outrage, he was almost executed as well, the massacre provoked the Swedish War of Liberation, including the election and crowning of Gustav Vasa as King in Strängnäs in 1523. Olaus attended the coronation, swore fealty to his monarch, a year later Olaus was appointed Stockholms town secretary and moved to the new capital, where he also served as a judge, and town councilor. Olaus became known for his advocacy of Lutheranism and criticism of prevailing Roman Catholicism, in October 1524, the Uppsala Cathedrals chapter excommunicated both brothers on grounds of heresy. They remained, however, confident in the new Swedish kings strong support, in 1525 Olaus married, as Lutheran practice permitted, and also implemented another of Luthers ideas by having the mass sung in Swedish for the first time. Throughout this period Olaus was also involved in scholarly endeavors, including translating Lutheran works into Swedish, in 1526, Olaus published the first Swedish translation of the New Testament, and also published a catechism in Swedish. The Petri brothers efforts to teach their King and fellow Swedes about Luthers ideas bore fruit the following year, in 1531, Olaus published a slightly simplified version of the Catholic mass in Swedish. Contemporaries described Olaus as energetic and pushy, particularly about matters in which he believed strongly and he also wrote a Swedish hymnal, liturgical manual and many homiletic and polemic tracts. In fact, some consider the brothers and their ally Laurentius Andreae responsible for most early Swedish printed literature, Olaus also wrote a Chronicle of Sweden, which despite some historical inaccuracies, contains many interesting facts and anecdotes and remains an important historical document. Olaus also had an important part in translating the whole Bible into the vernacular, however, shortly after his ordination, Olaus relationship with King Gustav deteriorated sharply. Olaus was arrested and put on trial for treason, supposedly because he had learned about a conspiracy against the King during confession, one historian suggests that Olaus writings criticizing the Kings harsh punishments, as well as taxation policies also contributed to the criminal trial. King Gustav also wanted to control the church, while Olaus distrusted the kings autocratic tendencies, after Olaus Petri and Laurentius Andreae were found guilty on January 2,1540, both received death sentences, and even his brother Lars signed the judgment. However, after much bargaining and many requests, friends managed to get both clergymen released on bail, although clearly their political careers had ended. Olaus received a pardon in 1542, possibly as a reward for completing the massive biblical translation project
34.
Halo (optical phenomenon)
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Halo is the name for a family of optical phenomena produced by light interacting with ice crystals suspended in the atmosphere. Halos can have many forms, ranging from colored or white rings to arcs, many of these are near the Sun or Moon, but others occur elsewhere or even in the opposite part of the sky. Among the best known halo types are the halo, light pillars and sun dogs. The particular shape and orientation of the crystals are responsible for the type of halo observed, light is reflected and refracted by the ice crystals and may split up into colors because of dispersion. The crystals behave like prisms and mirrors, refracting and reflecting light between their faces, sending shafts of light in particular directions, atmospheric phenomena such as halos were used as part of weather lore as an empirical means of weather forecasting before meteorology was developed. They often do mean that rain is going to fall within the next 24 hours as the clouds that cause them can signify an approaching frontal system. Other common optical phenomena involving water droplets rather than ice crystals include the glory, hexagonal plate- and column-shaped ice crystals cause the phenomenon. Plate crystals generally cause pillars only when the sun is within 6 degrees of the horizon, or below it, the crystals tend to orient themselves near-horizontally as they fall or float through the air, and the width and visibility of a sun pillar depend on crystal alignment. Light pillars can also form around the moon, and around street lights or other bright lights, pillars forming from ground-based light sources may appear much taller than those associated with the sun or moon. Since the observer is closer to the source, crystal orientation matters less in the formation of these pillars. Among the best-known halos is the 22° halo, often just called halo, the ice crystals that cause the 22° halo are oriented semi-randomly in the atmosphere, in contrast to the horizontal orientation required for some other halos such as sun dogs and light pillars. Other haloes can form at 46° to the sun, or at the horizon, or around the zenith, in the Anglo-Cornish dialect of English, a halo round the sun or the moon is called a cocks eye and is a token of bad weather. The term is related to the Breton word kog-heol which has the same meaning, in Nepal, the halo round the sun is called Indrasabha with a connotation of the assembly court of Lord Indra – the Hindu god of lightning, thunder and rain. The natural phenomena may be reproduced artificially by several means, firstly, by computer simulations, or secondly by experimental means. Regarding the latter, one may take a single crystal and rotate it around the appropriate axis/axes. A still further and more experimental approach is to find analogous refraction geometries. This approach employs the fact that in cases the average geometry of refraction through an ice crystal may be imitated / mimicked via the refraction through another geometrical object. In this way, the Circumzenithal arc, the Circumhorizontal arc, a particularly simple table-top experiment reproduces artificially the colorful circumzenithal and circumhorizontal arcs using a water glass only
35.
Sun dog
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A sun dog or mock sun, meteorological name parhelion, is an atmospheric phenomenon that consists of a bright spot to the left and/or right of the Sun. They often occur in pairs, one on side of the Sun. Sun dogs are a member of a family of halos. Sun dogs typically appear as two subtly colored patches of light to the left and right of the Sun, approximately 22° distant and they can be seen anywhere in the world during any season, but they are not always obvious or bright. Sun dogs are best seen and are most conspicuous when the Sun is close to the horizon, the crystals act as prisms, bending the light rays passing through them with a minimum deflection of 22°. As the crystals gently float downwards with their hexagonal faces almost horizontal, sunlight is refracted horizontally. Larger plates wobble more, and thus produce taller sundogs, Sun dogs are red-colored at the side nearest the Sun, farther out the colors grade through oranges to blue. However, the colors overlap considerably and so are muted, never pure or saturated, the colors of the sun dog finally merge into the white of the parhelic circle. The same plate shaped ice crystals that cause sun dogs are responsible for the colorful circumzenithal arc. The latter is often missed by viewers, however, since it is located more or less directly overhead. Another halo variety often seen together with sun dogs is the 22° halo and it is possible to predict the forms of sun dogs as would be seen on other planets and moons. Mars might have sun dogs formed by both water-ice and CO2-ice, on the giant gas planets — Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune — other crystals form the clouds of ammonia, methane, and other substances that can produce halos with four or more sun dogs. A somewhat common misconception among the public is to refer to any member of the ice halo family as a sun dog. However, sun dogs represent just one of different types of halos. Moreover, the sun dog specifically refers to either of the two bright spots to the left and right of the Sun, each of them is a separate sun dog. Since they typically appear in pairs, it would be accurate, therefore. For referring to the phenomenon in general, the term halo is more appropriate. The exact etymology of sun dog largely remains a mystery, the Oxford English Dictionary states it as being of obscure origin
36.
Pulpit
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Pulpit is a raised stand for preachers in a Christian church. The origin of the word is the Latin pulpitum, the traditional pulpit is raised well above the surrounding floor for audibility and visibility, accessed by steps, with sides coming to about waist height. From the late medieval period onwards, pulpits have often had a known as the sounding board or abat-voix above and sometimes also behind the speaker. Though sometimes highly decorated, this is not purely decorative, most pulpits have one or more book-stands for the preacher to rest his or her bible, notes or texts upon. The pulpit is generally reserved for clergy and this is mandated in the regulations of the Roman Catholic church, and several others. Even in Welsh Nonconformism, this was appropriate, and in some chapels a second pulpit was built opposite the main one for lay exhortations, testimonials. Many churches have a second, smaller stand called the lectern, which can be used by lay persons, equivalent platforms for speakers are the bema of Ancient Greece and Jewish synagogues, and the minbar of Islamic mosques. From the pulpit is often used metaphorically for something which is said with official church authority, in many Christian churches, there are two speakers stands at the front of the church. Often, the one on the left is called the pulpit, since the Gospel lesson is often read from the pulpit, the pulpit side of the church is sometimes called the gospel side. In both Catholic and Protestant churches the pulpit may be located closer to the congregation in the nave, either on the nave side of the crossing. This is especially the case in churches, to ensure the preacher can be heard by all the congregation. Fixed seating for the congregation came relatively late in the history of church architecture, fixed seating facing forward in the nave and modern electric amplification has tended to reduce the use of pulpits in the middle of the nave. Outdoor pulpits, usually attached to the exterior of the church, if attached to the outside wall of a church, these may be entered from a doorway in the wall, or by steps outside. The other speakers stand, usually on the right, is known as the lectern, the word lectern comes from the Latin word lectus, past participle of legere, meaning to read, because the lectern primarily functions as a reading stand. It is typically used by lay people to read the lessons, to lead the congregation in prayer. Because the epistle lesson is read from the lectern, the lectern side of the church is sometimes called the epistle side. In other churches, the lectern, from which the Epistle is read, is located to the congregations left, though unusual, movable pulpits with wheels were also found in English churches. A portable outside pulpit of wood and canvas was used by John Wesley, modern synagougue bemas are often similar in form to centrally-placed pulpits in Evangelical churches
37.
17th-century French art
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In the early part of the 17th century, late mannerist and early Baroque tendencies continued to flourish in the court of Marie de Medici and Louis XIII. Art from this period shows influences from both the north of Europe and from Roman painters of the Counter-Reformation, artists in France frequently debated the merits between Peter Paul Rubens and Nicolas Poussin. There was also a strong Caravaggio school represented in the period by the paintings of Georges de La Tour. The wretched and the poor were featured in an almost Dutch manner in the paintings by the three Le Nain brothers. In the paintings of Philippe de Champaigne there are both propagandistic portraits of Louis XIII s minister Cardinal Richelieu and other more contemplative portraits of people in the Jansenist sect. The Palace of Versailles, initially a hunting lodge built by his father, was transformed by Louis XIV into a marvelous palace for fêtes and parties. Architect Louis Le Vau, painter and designer Charles Le Brun, the initial impetus for this transformation of Versailles is generally linked to the private château Vaux-le-Vicomte built for Louis XIVs minister of Finance Nicolas Fouquet. Having offered a festival for the king in the newly finished residence in 1661. The architects and artists under his patronage were all put to work on Versailles, in his youth, Louis XIV had suffered during the civil and parliamentary insurrection known as the Fronde. Versailles became a gilded cage, To leave spelled disaster for a noble, for all official charges, a word or glance from the king could make or destroy a career. The king himself followed a strict daily program, and there was little privacy, yet the difficult wars at the end of his long reign and the religious problems created by the revocation of the Edict of Nantes made his last years dark ones. French artists of the seventeenth century Baroque painting Classicism Perrault’s Colonnade Anthony Blunt, Art, french Art Vol III, The Ancient Régime ISBN 2-08-013617-8
38.
Sounding board
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A sounding board, also known as a tester and abat-voix is a structure placed above and sometimes also behind a pulpit or other speaking platform which helps to project the sound of the speaker. It is usually made of wood, the structure may be specially shaped to assist the projection, for example, being formed as a parabolic reflector. In the typical setting of a building, the sounding board may be ornately carved or constructed. The term abat-voix, from the French word for the thing is also used in English. Sounding board may also be used figuratively to describe a person who listens to a speech or proposal in order that the speaker may rehearse or explore the more fully. The term is also used inter-personally to describe one person listening to another, when a person listens and responds with comments, they provide perspective that otherwise would not be available through introspection or thought alone. Baldachin - canopy over altar or throne Chhatri
39.
Genius (mythology)
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In Roman religion, the genius is the individual instance of a general divine nature that is present in every individual person, place, or thing. Much like an angel, the genius would follow each man from the hour of his birth until the day he died. For women it was the Juno spirit that would accompany each of them, the Greeks called their genii daemons, and believed in them from the earliest times. The rational powers and abilities of human being were attributed to their soul. Each individual place had a genius and so did powerful objects, the concept extended to some specifics, the genius of the theatre, of vineyards, and of festivals, which made performances successful, grapes grow, and celebrations succeed, respectively. It was extremely important in the Roman mind to propitiate the appropriate genii for the major undertakings, although the term genius might apply to any divinity whatsoever, most of the higher-level and state genii had their own well-established names. Genius applied most often to places or people not generally known. Houses, doors, gates, streets, districts, tribes, the supreme hierarchy of the Roman gods, like that of the Greeks, was modelled after a human family. It featured a father, Jupiter, who was also the divine unity. These supreme unities were subdivided into genii for each family, hence. The male function was a Jupiter, for example, to protect infants one propitiated a number of deities concerned with birth and childrearing, Cuba, Cunina and Rumina. Certainly, if those genii did not perform their proper function well, hundreds of lararia, or family shrines, have been discovered at Pompeii, typically off the atrium, kitchen or garden, where the smoke of burnt offerings could vent through the opening in the roof. A lararium was distinct from the penus, another shrine where the penates, each lararium features a panel fresco containing the same theme, two peripheral figures attend on a central figure or two figures who may or may not be at an altar. In the foreground is one or two serpents crawling toward the genius through a meadow motif, campania and Calabria preserved an ancient practice of keeping a propitious house snake, here linked with the genius. Etymologically genius has the same derivation as nature from gēns from the Indo-European root *gen- and it is the indwelling nature of an object or class of objects or events that act with a perceived or hypothesized unity. Philosophically the Romans did not find the paradox of the one being many confusing, multiple events could therefore be attributed to the same and different divinities and a person could be the same as and different from his genius. They were not distinct, as the guardian angels. This point of view is not attributable to any one civilization, the Etruscans had such beliefs at the beginning of history, but then so did the Greeks, the native Italics and many other peoples in the Near and Middle East
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