{"id":22708,"date":"2026-07-21T19:32:28","date_gmt":"2026-07-21T18:32:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.toomik.net\/helen\/blog\/?p=22708"},"modified":"2026-07-27T19:34:52","modified_gmt":"2026-07-27T18:34:52","slug":"daily_4157_-_drottningholm","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.toomik.net\/helen\/blog\/2026\/07\/21\/daily_4157_-_drottningholm\/","title":{"rendered":"Daily: 4157 – Drottningholm"},"content":{"rendered":"

It feels like I’ve been sitting here and staring at my computer screen forever. When there’s nobody to interact with, I just keep hammering away at whatever I’m doing, with few breaks, until I get tunnel vision and start feeling slightly crazy. I am incredibly productive, but also bored. Work is no fun without other people.<\/p>\n

I needed to feel less bored and less boring. A photo outing!<\/p>\n

When we had our midsummer picnic at Drottningholm, we were intrigued by a so-called “Gothic tower” in the distance. We didn’t have the opportunity to go look at it then. I went back today with the intention of finding out what a Gothic tower is, and also visiting the Chinese pavilion, which I’ve heard about many times but can’t remember having actually visited.<\/p>\n

Drottningholm (which, in case you didn’t know, is the palace where the King and Queen of Sweden live) has a large park. Some parts are more French and manicured in style; others are in the English, more romantic style. I had a lovely walk from the parking lot (very empty late on a Tuesday afternoon) along tree-lined avenues and past pretty lakes.<\/p>\n

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Pretty soon I arrived at the Gothic tower. Which is… very much a tower. On top of a hill. Apparently constructed for King Gustav III in the late 18th century, for him to have something interesting to look at from various viewpoints in the park, and as a potential backgrop for performances such as mock battles.<\/p>\n

It is not at all Gothic in style, and Wikipedia even suggests that the name has nothing to do with Gothic style, but with g\u00f6tar<\/i>, a name for people living in Southern Sweden before Sweden became a unified state.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

It is reportedly unfinished inside, and very locked.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

I don’t think many visitors make their way here. The stone platform off to one side of the tower was going to weed very prettily, with no tourists’ feet to wear them down.<\/p>\n


\n<\/p>\n

Now to make my way towards the Chinese pavilion. There were plenty of very pleasant paths, but they were mostly not straight and not signposted, so I had to guess my way forward.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

When the path I followed hit the edge of the baroque garden, navigation became easier. <\/p>\n


\n<\/p>\n

On the way to the Chinese pavilion, there was a smaller but no less exotic building. It looks like another frivolous decoration, but was actually housing for royal guards, although designed to look like a vaguely Mediterranean\/Oriental tent. (It seems like it would be dark and unpleasant to stay in, but there are large windows on the other side.) The siding is all painted sheet metal, and the tassels along the edge of the roof are also metal, almost like tin cans. <\/p>\n


\n<\/p>\n

And here is the Chinese pavilion. The first Chinese pavilion was a secret birthday present for Queen Lovisa Ulrika in the 1750s, built in great haste so as to be a surprise. It wasn’t that sturdy and only lasted ten years, but was so appreciated that a more durable replacement was built.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

It’s mostly a rather normal rococo building (as far as anything like that can be said to be normal) with various details and decorations designed to evoke a Chinese ambience.<\/p>\n


\n<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It feels like I’ve been sitting here and staring at my computer screen forever. When there’s nobody to interact with, I just keep hammering away at whatever I’m doing, with few breaks, until I get tunnel vision and start feeling slightly crazy. I am incredibly productive, but also bored. Work is no fun without other […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18,774,768],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-22708","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-dailies","category-neighbourhood","category-photography-2"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.toomik.net\/helen\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22708","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.toomik.net\/helen\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.toomik.net\/helen\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.toomik.net\/helen\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.toomik.net\/helen\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22708"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.toomik.net\/helen\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22708\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22713,"href":"https:\/\/www.toomik.net\/helen\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22708\/revisions\/22713"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.toomik.net\/helen\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22708"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.toomik.net\/helen\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22708"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.toomik.net\/helen\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22708"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}