Remarks
Around 1270, a Franciscan brick monastery was built on the island. Its church had a central nave and choir, and only a north aisle. In the 15 C, the south aisle was added, as well as a fine ornamental façade. In 1527, when Lutheran doctrine swept through the country, the order was disbanded. The high tower with its iron steeple finishes off the construction, and today it is one of the symbols of the city. Meanwhile, the monarchs decided to make it their burial place, building chapels in their memory. Apart from Queen Christine (buried in St Peter's Rome) and Gustav VI Adolph (buried in the Haga Park in 1973), all the sovereigns are buried here. A tour takes you from the Gustavien chapel (built for Gustav II Adolph in 1634) to the 2-storey Carolingian chapel (where Charles XII was laid to rest), from the Bernadotte chapel (which contains a porphyry monument to Napoleon's Marshal, and the more modest green marble tomb of his wife Désirée Clary) to the Wasa chapel. In front of the main altar, two recumbent statues represent the medieval kings who presided over the building of the monastery, Magnus Ladislas and Karl Knutsson Bonde.