South of Gamla Stan is the island of Södermalm, but the junction of these islands is not a happy one. Concrete and tarmac, railway lines, buses, traffic, all on varying levels, as all transport of a modern city has to cross at this single point. Södermalm presents a cliff-like face to the north, and indeed there is a steep climb of steps to access the streets behind. The railway and metro go underground and the main traffic either goes into a tunnel or round to the east. The Swedes have built a tall lift on the bridge to take you up to a high level pedestrian bridge over the main roads and easy access to the streets beyond, but I chose to climb the steps and enjoy the views across to the Old Town.
Katarina Kyrka
Stands on a medieval site, a chapel is mentioned here in the late C14. It was followed by the Sturekapellet built in the reign of Johan III which became too small as the city continued to spread. A new church was commissioned to the designs of Jean de la Valle, begun 1656 and completed in 1695. Badly damaged by a fire in the town in 1723 which necessitated the rebuilding of the dome by G.J.Adelcrantz. The church was further enriched by fittings over the years, but all this was lost in a huge fire in May 1990 and only the walls were left standing. Rebuilding started 3rd Dec.1990 to the designs of Ove Hidemark. It is an amalgam of old and new, and not wanting a third destructive fire, a sprinkler system and electronic alarms have been installed!
S:ta Maria Magdalena
As pressure on the Sturekapellet increased a new parish on Södermalm was created. This was built on the site of a chapel of the same name built c1350 and demolished in 1527. The church was refounded in 1576 but was for a long time unfinished, being first used in 1634. A slender spire was added to the tower by Nicholas Tessin in 1674. Like so many of Stockholm's churches, there was a bad fire in 1759, and the church was restored by C.J.Cronstedt largely to the original design, but without the spire.
Roman Catholic Cathedral of S:t Erik
(revised with thanks to Britt-Inger Johansson)
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Just where the dual carriageway of through-traffic emerges from its underground tunnel, you will find the rather strange Roman Catholic Cathedral. The parish was founded in 1860, but the church was not built until 1891-92. The church became the cathedral of the Diocese of Sweden in 1953.
The church is of brick with stone dressings, in a Romanesque style, to the designs of Axel Gillberg, a rather obscure architect. The main west (ritual, actually north) front has two flanking towers with rather oriental-looking tops. It is four bays long, and aisleless. Beyond if you look carefully is a modern extension, built in 1983 by Hans Westman, and given the wierdest of turrets. This is the end result of a long debate about whether a new cathedral was needed - S:t Erik was considered to be too small as was - but during the debate, the cathedral became a listed building, thus reducing the choices. In the end it was decided to cautiously extend the building.
Zooming in may help you better. Like two whale-bones reaching into the sky, they are surmounted by a coronet and cross. The new extension makes no attempt to harmonise with the old, and the new porch is the ugliest concrete parapet on two buttress like supports. The new extension has upper brick work and many windows, the lower part with crazy-paving-like walls and less windows. An upper courtyard connects the cathedral to the presbytery and convent buildings to the north.
Inside the older part has much use of banded brick and polychrome. The deep chancel arch has small apsidal chapels to the north and south (see the exterior pictures above). Beyond is the newer part, which from the nave seems to merge much better with the old. The nave is wide and has transverse arches and all the fittings are in keeping.
Step through the chancel arch and you are in a different world. Thanks to the careful choice of colours that match the older nave, the two parts do come together as one in some ways, although not in styles. When you enter the new part you realise that the cathedral is much larger than it appears, extending to the south. There are galleries around the walls, lit by a large number of windows of varying sizes and many with much older stained glass. Were these resited from an old chancel and chapel? Another chapel is hidden behind the east wall, reached by the vestibule, of Our Lady of Guadalupe.
Looking back into the older nave from here, it seems no more than an appendage. The squared arch is most brutal. However, the people using the church seem to stay in the nave, the rest of the cathedral was deserted it seemed. Does this mark the preference of the worshippers? It certainly would mine.
