The Outer Courtyard

Look around the side of the palace and you’ll see stairs leading up to the courtyard. Climb the stairs and walk on to the outer courtyard.
This is the outer courtyard and where you come to watch the parade of the royal guards, a favourite with a lot of Stockholmers. By now you’re probably used to the less than cheerful brown colour of the palace. So are the Stockholmers but many of them don’t like it anyway. They find it depressing and want the palace returned to its original colour. And that was? Well, at first it was a warm brick red with parts of white. Tessin’s choice. But when Hårleman took over he changed it to a pale yellow – rococo’s favourite colour and terribly expensive. Around 1820 it was time for a makeover and this time they painted it a pale pink. Like a giant box of sweets. Not everybody was happy with that so after a while it got to be yellow and grey instead. Until the end of the 19th century when king Oscar II had it returned to Tessin’s original shade of brick red. Which means it actually is the original colour today. But time – and pollution, perhaps - has turned the red into brown. And that’s that.
No, the royal palace is not to everybody’s liking. Not even those who’ve lived here. “It’s so ugly it makes you laugh” crown princess Margaret said when she moved here from England in the beginning of the 20th century. The Swedes loved Margaret and Margaret loved all things beautiful, especially flowers. She must have hated living in a city, you might think. Not at all, she simply made herself a hothouse on the roof and that’s were she’d go when life in the public eye got too much. Sadly, she died expecting her 6th child. The hothouse was closed and forgotten until a few years ago. Today, it’s open for people to visit. Everything is just as Margaret left it. Her black gardening boots are still there, along with her watering can, her trowel and flowerpots. And the sun shines as warmly through the glass as in her day. It’s a wonderful place, actually.

Photo Outer courtyard, Royal Palace, Stockholm by Thomas Kriese is licensed under CC BY 2.0