Uppsala Cathedral is consecrated
After more than 150 years of building, the largest church in the Nordic countries is consecrated. It is built of brick but modelled on French cathedrals, and a French master builder was brought in to lead the work.
The cathedral shows how Gothic reached Sweden: with French ideas but in the brick available in the Mälaren Valley.
Sweden received its own archbishopric in 1164, and it was located at Old Uppsala, the ancient royal and cult site with its great burial mounds. But Old Uppsala was out of the way, and trade and power increasingly gathered by the ridge and the river at Östra Aros a few kilometres to the south. In the 1270s the archbishopric was moved there, with the pope’s permission, and the town took over the name Uppsala. With the move came the relics of St Eric and the ambition to build a cathedral that could rival those on the Continent. Construction began at about the same time, driven by the archbishop and the cathedral chapter, with money from tithes, gifts and indulgences.
In 1287 a contract was drawn up in Paris with the master mason Étienne de Bonneuil, who was to travel to Uppsala with his journeymen to lead the work. He brought with him the idea of a choir with an ambulatory and a ring of chapels, just as in the French cathedrals. But the material was different. Instead of dressed limestone, the cathedral was built of brick made from the clay of the Mälaren Valley, and stone was used mainly for details such as portals and capitals. Building was slow, interrupted by lack of money, and continued in stages through the 14th century. The church was not consecrated until 1435. With its two west towers it became the largest church building in the Nordic countries, and it is as long as the towers are tall.
The cathedral became the foremost church of the realm. Gustav Vasa was crowned here in 1528 and lies buried in a funerary chapel behind the high altar, and Carl Linnaeus was later also buried in the church. The town fire of 1702 damaged it severely, and the towers were then given Baroque caps after designs by Carl Hårleman. In the 1880s Helgo Zettervall restored the church in a strictly French Gothic style, with tall pointed spires and new details. The result met with strong criticism from those who felt he had erased the church’s own history. A new restoration in the 1970s brought back parts of its older character. The building remains a clear example of how Gothic was adapted to Nordic brick.