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Changing of the Guard in Stockholm, Sweden @ Royal Palace (Kungliga Slottet)
With all of the recent unrest in Sweden, the daily changing of the guard may unfortunately need to turn into something a little different than a parade for tourists.
I thought this sculpture by Berndt Notke was pretty cool from the above angle as it looks like Saint George is actually riding a dragon, Harry Potter style. Actually he is on a horse slaying the dragon as you can see from a different angle below.
This sculpture is mentioned at the beginning of The Girl Who Takes An Eye For An Eye.
The church in Stockholm, Sweden in which you can find this work of art and the description photographed above goes by many names including Sankt Nikolai Kyrka (Church of St. Nicholas), Storkyrkan (The Great Church), and Stockholms Domkyrka (Stockholm Cathedral). Not many actually go to church in Sweden anymore for their original purposes as less than 20% of the population believes in god and far fewer attend a church. Most churches are mere museums and historical curiosities at this point. I wonder how long it will take for that to be true in the USA?
I took today’s photo one year ago. Stockholm is a wonderful city. Unfortunately, I only had half a day there. Someday I need to go back for a more extended visit.
On my way back to Copenhagen from the Getaway Rock Festival in Gavle, Sweden this past summer I spent an afternoon in Stockholm. I took a few hundred photos, but haven’t looked at them yet. Today’s pic is one of them. It came up as my photo of the day.
I followed a Rick Steves’ guidebook which I no longer own so I don’t have many details on this stained glass window. From the date on the bottom it looks like it was created about a hundred years ago for the German Church it now stands in, a building which was first begun in the 14th Century.