Uppsala Cathedral
The largest church in the Nordic countries was built in brick on French models from the late 13th century and consecrated in 1435. The French master builder Étienne de Bonneuil was brought in to lead the work. After a fire in 1702 the church was given low tower caps; the tall spires were added in the 1880s, when Helgo Zettervall remodelled large parts of it.
In the 1270s the archiepiscopal see was moved from Old Uppsala to Östra Aros, which then began to be called Uppsala, and with it the relic of Saint Erik. A new cathedral was begun there, intended to be the largest in the Nordic countries. In 1287 a contract was signed in Paris with the master builder Étienne de Bonneuil, who was to travel to Sweden with journeymen and lead the work. His influence can be seen in the French plan. Since suitable building stone was lacking in the area, brick became the main material, while portals, capitals and certain details were made of stone. Construction went on for about 150 years under a succession of master builders and changing finances, and the church was not consecrated until 1435. It became Sweden’s foremost church and the place of coronations.
The church is a basilica with a transept and west towers. The choir has an ambulatory with a ring of chapels, a typically French solution that is unusual in the Nordic countries. The towers are as tall as the church is long. Several of the kingdom’s best-known figures rest in the church. Gustav Vasa lies in a burial chapel behind the high altar together with his queens, beneath a monument by Willem Boy. The silver shrine of Saint Erik stands in the ring of chapels. Among the graves is also that of Carl Linnaeus, and Emanuel Swedenborg’s sarcophagus was moved here from London in the early 20th century. The cathedral also has late medieval wall paintings and richly decorated burial chapels, which show how the church became a place of remembrance for the nobility and the Crown.
Fires have shaped the church’s history. In the town fire of 1702 the towers and roofs were destroyed, and Carl Hårleman later gave the towers Baroque caps. In the 1880s Helgo Zettervall carried out an extensive restoration. He wanted to give the church a more Gothic appearance, so the render was hacked off and the façades were given new brick, flying buttresses and tall, slender spires modelled on French and German Gothic. The interventions were sharply criticised even at the time and became one of the reasons why attitudes to restoration changed in Sweden. In the 1970s a new restoration was carried out that partly took account of the church’s earlier appearance. Uppsala Cathedral is the clearest example of how French cathedral Gothic was translated into Nordic brick.