You are in Stortorget, the 'Great Square', the heart of the medieval town. Today it is full of cafés and painted houses, but this is where the bloodiest episode in Swedish history took place.

1A coronation with a trap

In 1520 Christian II of Denmark, who wanted to rule all three Nordic kingdoms of the Kalmar Union, conquered Sweden. Stockholm surrendered after receiving a written amnesty. On 4 November Christian was crowned in the cathedral, followed by three days of feasting at the castle. On the 7th the gates were shut: Archbishop Gustav Trolle accused the supporters of the late regent Sten Sture of heresy.

28 and 9 November

Around midday on Thursday the 8th, the executions began on this square. Two bishops were beheaded first; then noblemen, the mayor and the town councillors. According to the executioner, 82 people died; other sources speak of almost a hundred. Among them was Erik Johansson Vasa, father of the future Gustav Vasa. The eyewitness Olaus Petri wrote that the bodies lay on the square until Saturday and that the blood ran down the gutters. They were then burned on Södermalm.

'It was a gruesome and merciless murder,' Olaus Petri wrote in his chronicle.

People say the white stones on the red house at number 20 commemorate the victims, one for each head. It is a popular tradition: no source confirms it.

3What to look for

  • The red house on the west side, with its white stones.
  • The well, designed by Erik Palmstedt in 1778.
  • The Stock Exchange building, 1773-1778, home of the Swedish Academy.
Old hand-coloured engraving showing scenes from the executions of the Stockholm Bloodbath
The Bloodbath in a 1676 engraving copying the propaganda print commissioned by Gustav Vasa in 1524.

Documented

The executions of 8 and 9 November 1520 on Stortorget were described by the eyewitness Olaus Petri; the executioner Jürgen Homuth put the death toll at 82, among them Gustav Vasa's father.

Oral tradition

The idea that the white stones on the red house at number 20 stand for the victims, one per head, is a popular tradition with no documentary support.

Sources and credits

Olaus Petri, «En svensk krönika» (16th century); Lars-Olof Larsson, «Kalmarunionens tid» (1997); Swedish Wikipedia, «Stockholms blodbad» and «Stortorget, Stockholm».

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