Katarina Church, the church of the prophecy

You end the route in one of the most history-laden places in Stockholm. Remember what you heard at Stortorget: after the Bloodbath of November 1520, the bodies of the executed were taken out of the city and burned on great pyres. The chronicler Olaus Petri places this on Södermalm, and tradition locates it here, on the hill where this churchyard was later laid out.

1A church on the ashes

The church was built between 1656 and 1695 to plans by Jean de la Vallée, the same architect who completed Riddarhuset. It is named after Princess Katarina, mother of King Charles X Gustav. It was the first centrally planned church in Sweden. In the 1670s, this parish was also the scene of a notorious witch trial.

2The prophecy of the tower

Because of the site's past, a belief arose that a curse lay on the hill. And an old legend foretold that Katarina's tower would fall twice. On 1 May 1723 a fire that swept through the district destroyed the dome. Then, on the night of 17 May 1990, the church burned again: the tower collapsed and crashed through the vault. The investigation blamed an electrical fault.

The rebuilding, completed in 1995, used the same techniques and materials as in the 17th century.

The new altarpiece is by Liss Eriksson, the sculptor of the Iron Boy you saw earlier.

3What to look for

• The octagonal dome, 72 metres high in total.
• The yellow façades, a colour chosen in 1784.
• The gravestones in the churchyard around the church.