State Visit from The King and Queen of Spain: November 24-25 2021


If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.
Imagine 500 (!) rooms are emptied because of renovations. It still leaves 900 (!) rooms to house Don Felipe and Doña Letizia. Imagine a B&B or a gîte with 900 rooms...

Yes I agree, it is rather odd that the Swedish Monarchs couldn't have housed their guests themselves.
 
Imagine 500 (!) rooms are emptied because of renovations. It still leaves 900 (!) rooms to house Don Felipe and Doña Letizia. Imagine a B&B or a gîte with 900 rooms...

Maybe they consider that only the state guest rooms are fit for a Head of State.
 
The Royal Palace in Stockholm is one of Europe's largest palaces, with some 1400 rooms spread over three floors. It baffles me no guests' appartements were available in that mammoth building.

Only 660 rooms of the over 1400 rooms have windows. And these rooms are mentioned at the website of The Royal Palaces.
"The palace has more than 600 rooms divided between eleven floors with a state apartment facing the city and smaller living rooms facing the inner courtyard."
The Royal Palace - Kungliga slotten
 
Only 660 rooms of the over 1400 rooms have windows. And these rooms are mentioned at the website of The Royal Palaces.

"The palace has more than 600 rooms divided between eleven floors with a state apartment facing the city and smaller living rooms facing the inner courtyard."

The Royal Palace - Kungliga slotten
You beat me to it LF. In Sweden a space without windows aren't allowed to be called a room.
There is the Grand Guest Apartment for prominent guests such as visiting heads of state in the western row of the palace where the scaffolding from the facade restoration was removed only a few days ago. I know that LadyFinn posted about the restoration on the forums. The guest apartment has three bed rooms. There are also other smaller guest suites in the palace. I've for instance read that Queen Margrethe always uses the Small Guest Apartment situated on the palace's mezzanine floor on the far northern side of the western row during her many visits to Stockholm. The same goes for Princess Birgitta when she doesn't stay at Hotel Diplomat.
According to Margareta Thorgren, for State visits, guests are offered to stay at the Royal Palace, but it's often a matter of the size of the visiting delegation.. The Spanish delegation was huge. Something that springs to mind is Queen Margrethe saying that visitors from republics often found the royal palaces uncomfortable, but that royals are used to old, drafty houses.
The Grand Guest Apartment is also famously haunted. Queen Juliana once demanded to be moved after having spent one night there because of the ghosts and Crown Princess Victoria once told author Herman Lindqvist how they had kept King Hussein and Queen Rania awake during their stay.

For those interested in reading about the facade restoration of the Royal palace the National Property Board has an excellent project page https://www.sfv.se/fastigheter/byggprojekt/restaurering-av-stockholms-slotts-fasader/#
 
:previous:

It is true what you say about royals and presidents. While royals had no problems using the 19th C bathrooms in art nouveau style in the Royal Palace Amsterdam, it was President Chirac of France refusing to use it. Apparently it was not up to standards he was used to. So he chose a hotel over the palace. (Since then the whole palace has been renovated and redecorated).
 
Thanks for the reply.. With so many rooms available I would think there would be no problems putting up the royal couple and their travel party. Especially for security purposes I think that would have been the best option.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Thanks for the reply.. With so many rooms available I would think there would be no problems putting up the royal couple and their travel party. Especially for security purposes I think that would have been the best option.
Those rooms have other uses. You can't just put up bunk beds and porta potties in the Bernadotte gallery.
Security wise the royal palace is a nightmare. It's situated in the middle of the city with other houses only meters away, there are almost a thousand windows (some almost at street level), subterranean passageways and cellars that are connected to half the Old town, numerous entrances etc...
Most importantly the visiting guests are all offered the use of the Guest Apartments, but according to the royal press office many choose Grand Hotel instead.
 
Last edited:
Back
Top Bottom