On Sunday, 16 december at 16, återinviger king Carl Gustaf of sweden (with sequence number 16) Bengt Erland Fogelbergs equestrian statue of Karl XIV Johan, the first of the Bernadotte dynasty on the Swedish throne.
a private initiative from Oscar, who wanted to erect a memorial to his father and paid for it all out of your own pocket. Karl XIV Johan died in march 1844, but it did take over ten years before the equestrian statue was inaugurated.
Bengt Erland Fogelberg was a busy man. In parallel with the kungastatyn, he worked with the bronze sculpture of Birger jarl, which adorn the Birger Jarls torg on Riddarholmen and the Swedish king, Gustav II Adolf, Gustav Adolf’s square in Gothenburg.
The three statues was inaugurated in the space of four weeks in 1854. Birger jarl on October 21, the Swedish king Gustav II Adolf of 18 november and between these two, Karl XIV Johan, on 4 november, a day chosen with care.
” It was to mark the 40th anniversary of the Swedish-Norwegian union, says slottsfogden Erik Kampmann, who has been responsible for Karl XIV Johan-the project this landmark year in the field.
Erik Kampmann. Photo: Eva-Karin Gyllenberg
Bengt Erland Fogelberg chose to depict Karl Johan by anno 1810, the year when he rode into Stockholm as the crown prince. Oscar’s believed that the statue would be erected inside the city’s customs, and that was it. Karl Johan was placed at the Karl Johanslussen, facing that if he rode towards the city.
the redevelopment of Slussen in the 1930s moved the statue to Slussplan and then took the opportunity to flip the artwork so that the monarch instead of the red from out of town, to Södermalm.
From the beginning, stood the equestrian statue on a plinth of marble from Carrara in Italy, just like Birger jarl, but the marble foundered with time and was replaced, therefore, with granite.
In February of this year, around the same time as the commemoration began, the decision was made to let Karl XIV Johan to stay next to the Castle and, therefore, create a new socket.
Erik Kampmann says that it is granite from Bohuslän which has been used.
“the Stone is carved in three different ways,” he says and points down towards the markbeläggningen around the socket. Gatstenen is the texture and above it the krysshamrade the rungs of the ladder, placed as a semi-circle as the counterpart to Johan Tobias Sergel Gustav III statue, just downhill from the castle.
– Beklädnadsstenen is flammad and at the top, closest to the king, is the surface polished, ” says Erik Kampmann and shows the pictures he has taken with his smart phone, the photos taken from the scaffolding that was mounted down in a week.
to chance when it came to the details so it is almost a shame that you can’t see all the details because the king’s horse is positioned four metres above ground level.
At the eye level (depending on long you are of course) on the socket illuminated letters in gold: For Carl Johan, Brödrafolkens father. In this is the Oscar I and Carl XVI Gustaf, and the bottom three dates in gold with roman numerals. It is MDCCCXVIII MDCCCLIV MMXVIII (1818, 1854 and 2018).
– It is the dates when Karl XIV Johan became king, when the statue was completed and when the återinvigs, ” says Erik Kampmann, which counts with the obelisk, which has been down for renovation, should be back Slottbacken again in april 2019.
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