Obelisk at Slottsbacken

The Obelisk at Slottsbacken, the centre point of Stockholm, Sweden

The Obelisk at Slottsbacken adjacent to the southern entrances of the Royal Palace in Stockholm Old Town is considered to be the very centre point of the Swedish capital Stockholm.

The granite Obelisk is 22 m high, including the pedestal of 5 m. From the Obelisk all street numbers in Stockholm have their common origin - there are only a handful of exceptions, only some small streets originating from the street Birger Jarlsgatan.^[1]

The neo-Egyptian design of the obelisk was made by the artist Louis Jean Desprez and it was erected by the inventor and colonel-mecanicus Jonas Lidströmer in 1800. The construction was at the time considered to be complicated, since the Stockholm Obelisk is made of many and heavy stone boulders, and not as sometimes in the antiquity cut in one piece.

The Obelisk was commissioned by King Gustav III to show his gratitude to the burghers of Stockholm who guarded the city while the king was leading the Swedish-Finnish Navy in the Russian War in 1788-1790.

References and notes

1. ^ Stockholms gatunamn (2nd ed. ed.). Stockholm: Kommittén för Stockholmsforskning. 1992. ISBN 91-7031-042-4. 

See also

• List of streets and squares in Gamla stan
• History of Stockholm

Coordinates: 59°19′33.15″N 18°04′17.40″E / 59.325875°N 18.0715°E / 59.325875; 18.0715