Only a limited range of civic functions including parks, markets, and churches were specifically allotted space in the newly approved plans (1875-1879) for Stockholm. Other important functions like government buildings and schools were left to find space for themselves. To be fair, the status of schools was not as prominent as it is today, and schools typically blended in with the general urban fabric. But as the legal requirements for schools became more detailed, as society began to more highly value education, and as the child’s place in society became more defined and defended, schools became “palaces of knowledge” set physically apart from the hum-drum urban fabric.
History of Education and Schools in Sweden
Since the Middle Ages, priests were required by law to ensure that every child could read and recite the catechism and certain prayers. Education beyond that minimum level was reserved for the more prosperous classes, and almost exclusively only for boys. Guilds provided basic education for craftsmen, schools at cathedrals educated boys who would become priests, schools at monasteries educated boys who would become monks, and the largest cities had schools funded by and attended by children of the merchant class. The nobility was educated at home by private governors and tutors. The first university in the Nordic countries was established in Uppsala just north of Stockholm in 1477.
There were some regulations of schools in the 1500’s but it wasn’t until after the Reformation that education became politically important. In the 1600’s, the powerful elites understood that wider literacy among the general population would be beneficial to the state and to the country. There was also a need to “Swedish-ize” people in newly acquired provinces including Skåne, Halland, and Blekinge in the south as well as Härjedalen and Jämtland in the north. The crown also wished to avoid more witch hunts which had haunted the country in the beginning of the 1600’s and directly funded schools in certain key areas. The nobility often funded schools on their estates and the owners of industrial ironworks often funded schools on their factory estates, both of which were generally open to both boys and girls.
The Reformation’s emphasis on a personal relationship with God also increased the need for the broader public to be able to at least read the Bible for themselves. Church attendance had been obligatory since the 1200’s, but starting in 1610, children were also required to go to Sunday school which was taught by the church’s clerk. As of 1644, church clerks could only be hired if they had the knowledge to teach children to read. In 1686, a law was passed to more strictly require that parents and priests were to be responsible for making sure that all children, even servants, could read and that they knew what was needed to become good Christians—how to sing hymns, recite prayers, recite catechism, had the knowledge to be confirmed into the church, and could be active in church services. Priests were obligated to test children to make sure that they were making adequate progress.
As both the church and the state became more invested in general education, schools were now more strictly regulated. In the mid 1600’s, education was formally divided into three levels: an elementary education (trivialskolan), a high school education (gymnasium), and the university level. Elementary education would be funded by the church and last four years with an extra two years for students continuing on to high school. The clergy was required to inspect the elementary schools for quality, which was relatively easy, since schools were usually located in church annexes. High school would be funded by the state and last four years. Entrance tests were now required to get into university to hinder the nobility from sending their inadequately prepared sons to university. The majority of children attending schools were from poor backgrounds as the nobility still educated their sons at home. Some of the elementary students were girls, but girls were not allowed to enter high school or university.
The school system in the 1700’s remained more or less the same, but small, private schools for girls started popping up. These schools were generally boarding schools and catered to the upper classes. Starting in 1723, parents were now subject to fines if their children couldn’t read and write by the appropriate age.
This widespread but low level of education worked for centuries; in the beginning of the 1800’s an impressive 85-90% of Sweden’s population could read and write. But in the 1800’s, the changing society had greater needs for education, and Sweden’s education system began to modernize. First, in 1820, high school was extended to students that weren’t planning on attending university and was consequently split up into two different tracks—a practical business-oriented track (folkskolan, literally the people’s school) and a more classical/theoretical track in preparation for university studies (läroverket) which was only available to boys. Folk schools were funded by the municipalities and the college prep schools continued to be funded by the state as their main purpose was to provide well-educated citizens to fill the state’s need for priests, judges, civil servants, teachers, and doctors. (Elementary education was still funded by the church). It is worth noting that high schools were still limited to cities for practical reasons. This parallel, class-based school system with working-class children attending the folk schools and upper-class children attending the college prep schools would last into the 1900’s.
Being funded by the state, the college prep school buildings were much fancier than the folk schools. They were meant to reflect the value of education and often dominated the cityscape. They were often designed by the era’s most eminent architects, and the ornamentation was created by the most renowned sculptors and painters. Even on the inside, they had impressive vestibules, stairwells, and assembly halls.
In 1842, a landmark law was passed. While children were still not required to attend school, they were required to have their knowledge tested at schools. This forced all parishes to have formal schools, something that the majority of parishes still lacked. A formal education system for teachers was also established. While teachers’ education would be funded by the state, the parishes were still required to pay the elementary teachers’ salaries.
There was a lot of resistance to this law. From the church’s side, the new school testing requirements felt like an admonishment of the old system where church clerks were responsible for educating children and the clergy was responsible for testing the children’s skills and knowledge. The church felt like the state was stepping on its toes. Additionally, many parishes didn’t have the extra money to build a formal school or to pay a teacher.
Many parents were also resistant. The population was largely poor, and most parents couldn’t afford to lose their children’s labor. They couldn’t afford to decently clothe their children or to pay for schoolbooks and supplies, either. Parents could not afford to even indirectly, through their tithes, fund the schools. Some parents also questioned the benefit of educating their children more than was necessary for their lowly lot in life.
Further practical problems hampered implementation of the law—there weren’t enough teachers, schools were often very distant from the farms, and there wasn’t a lot of direction in the law as to what should be taught or how. The law resulted in a lot of one room schoolhouses where the older kids taught the younger kids. To combat this problem, starting in 1856, women were allowed to study to become elementary school teachers which enormously bolstered the supply of available teachers. A new law in 1864 regulated that students were to be split up into different classes by age and that teachers were only allowed to teach one class at a time.
Throughout the 1800’s, a number of regulations were passed on what was to be taught and how it was to be taught. The basic curriculum was widened beyond “the three R’s” of reading, writing, and arithmetic and in addition to academics, the schools were also aimed at creating a more wholesome population. Rural schools taught a curriculum of gardening skills and keeping small livestock in order to show the poorest populations how to grow a variety of nutritional food for themselves. Bathing was also introduced, especially in the cities where most homes had no bathing facilities and the nearest bodies of water were far away and/or unspeakably polluted.
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| Left: A type drawing of a rural schoolyard where vegetable gardens occupy most of the site.* Right: School baths in Malmö.* |
A type of kindergarten was created in 1858—the youngest children were to attend småskolan or “little school” where they would be taught to read before continuing on to elementary school where they were expected to already be able to read. College preparatory high school was also adjusted. There were still two tracks, but as of 1856 the Latin track provided a more classical education while the Real track was more science-based. Starting in 1874, girls’ high schools could also receive state funding if they operated like the Latin and Real high schools. In 1876, six years of school attendance starting at age 7 finally became mandatory. Homeschooling and testing out of formal schooling was no longer an option.
Not only did the state more and more directly affect the type of education that students received, but the state also began to regulate school buildings. The first type drawings for schools were produced in 1865, and it was ordained that schools should be visibly and centrally placed, on top of a high point if possible, and that their architectural design should highlight the importance and value of education. Large school yards were also demanded. There was also an emphasis on good ventilation.
Further regulations on school buildings were passed in 1878. School buildings were to be dignified, harmonic, elegant, and well-proportioned with ornamentation that followed from the materials and structure. A clock on the façade or even a clocktower was recommended. The building was to be surrounded by wide open spaces and the building, spaces, and plantings were to create an aesthetic whole. The schools’ visually appealing appearance was to be a role model for other public buildings. Schools, especially in the cities, became “palaces for the people.”
It’s a bit ahead of this post but it’s interesting to note that it wasn’t until 1927 that the parallel school system for elementary education was abolished and that children from all societal classes began to attend the same schools and receive the same quality of education. In 1928, almost a decade after women won the right to vote in Sweden, girls were finally allowed to attend the same high schools as boys. Also, elementary education was still under the purview of the church until the 1930’s when municipalities finally took control of and responsibility for elementary schools.
Schools in Stockholm
Although schools existed in Stockholm since the Middle Ages, it wasn’t until the 1800’s that they began to be a noticeable element of the cityscape. Early schools were generally small and were not generally housed in specific school buildings. Instead, they were in the attics of apartment buildings, took up a floor of apartments in a building, were housed in the teacher’s own apartment, were housed in an auxiliary building around the church, and the like. Even when schools grew to need their own buildings, they still blended in with the urban fabric. An example of this is the Klara Trivialskolan (Klara Elementary School) that was built in 1655 as one of several auxiliary buildings around Klara Church.
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| Left: The Klara school building as seen from the churchyard. Right: Seen from the street (the Klara church tower is just visible to the right of the image). |
Beginning in the 1800’s, this pattern began to change for some, but far from all, schools. I’m generalizing here, but the pattern was as follows:
Folk schools, which were funded by the church parishes, were built much like apartment buildings, except with higher ceiling heights and larger windows. Not wanting to spend more money than absolutely necessary, they were built out to the lot line at the street and small, cramped schoolyards were relegated to the interior of the block. These schools were often built on a corner, allowing for an L-shaped floor plan with corridors and classrooms extending in both directions from a central administration block. The L-plans also allowed for more schoolyard space on the interior of the block.
The folk school buildings were well proportioned but relatively simply ornamented for their time. The earlier examples remind me of military architecture of the 1800’s: rigidly classical, but with simple and relatively sparse ornamentation. Many folk schools were directly adjacent to churchyards, I’m guessing on land that had always belonged to the church. Where the churches couldn’t spare the land, the schools were often relegated to the outskirts of the parishes where unbuilt land was relatively cheap. Toward the end of the 1800’s, there was a ring of folk schools encircling Stockholm’s farthest reaches.
Early folk schools featured disciplined, sober architecture with only light ornamentation but were still striking compositions in the urban fabric. However, they blended in very well with the general city structure in scale, placement, and composition. Later folk schools began to follow the architectonic patterns set by Real and Latin high schools (see below) and were more imposing buildings: fortresses or castles of knowledge. These later folk schools were sometimes fully or partially separated from their surroundings by a narrow yard and/or fence.
Private schools, including girls’ schools, that became large and successful enough to be able to build their own school buildings (a rarity) followed a similar pattern to the early folk schools: buildings built out to the street and well-integrated into the city fabric. The private schools, however, blended even more into the surrounding city as neither their massing, windows, nor ceiling heights were different than their apartment-building neighbors. Private schoolyards were small and wedged into the center of the block.
In contrast, the college preparatory Real and Latin high schools were generally built as highly detailed palace-like buildings set in a park and located in prominent positions in the middle of neighborhoods. These buildings and schoolyards are often set higher than the surrounding cityscape and occupied the entire city block. They were financed by the state which had a mission to visibly demonstrate the value of education through these school buildings. It is these schools that are truly palaces of knowledge, and they exude a rarefied, sacred, and somewhat privileged air.
The following paragraphs cover all of the school buildings in central Stockholm from the 1800’s that I am aware of. I have not found a comprehensive list, so I have pieced together this catalog from my own observations around the city and from various other sources. Many of the schools that I list had existed as institutions well before the 1800’s, but schools often moved from address to address as their size and needs changed, and it was only in the 1800’s that they began to receive their own dedicated buildings. Many of the schools have changed names several times over the course of their history, and I have listed the name of the school when the building was built and afterwards, where applicable, the current name of the school. I have not included buildings that housed schools if the buildings were not originally built as schools (this list is much more numerous than my list of dedicated school buildings). Nor have I included institutions like orphanages or other charitable institutions which also had educational components. Higher educational institutions are not included, either. I have cut off my list at construction completed in 1899, even though this boundary is a bit arbitrary—the same patterns of school building lasted well into the 1930’s, and many aspects even later into 20th century Stockholm.
1) Djurgårdsskolan (Djurgården School), 1828. Djurgården. Architect unknown.
There has been a school in the shipbuilding neighborhood on the island of Djurgården since 1759, but it wasn’t until the 1820’s that the school received its own building when a wealthy merchant built and donated a purpose-built school building to the parish. The building with its wooden structure and façade is much more residential than institutional in design, and its modest size is a fitting scale to the village-like neighborhood. Only a small portico gives a nod to its public, civic function. Church services were also held in the building almost from the beginning, but in 1867 it was decided that church services would cease because they interrupted the schooling. When a new school was built nearby (see #10 below), the building was renovated into a neighborhood church, and it still functions as a church today.
2) Jakobs lägre elementärläroverk (Jacob’s High School), 1850. Norrmalm. Architect J F Åbom.
2) Jakobs lägre elementärläroverk (Jacob’s High School), 1850. Norrmalm. Architect J F Åbom.
One of the first purpose-built schools in Stockholm, this parish high school building would have been large and impressive when built, but today its stuccoed volume melts into the surrounding urban fabric. Built out to the lot line on two sides of a block, this Classical building’s central volume features a clock on the pediment, a recognizable sign of the school’s institutional nature. The famous Swedish author August Strindberg went to school here. This building is no longer a school and the façade is in need of some TLC.
3) Stockholms gymnasium (Stockholm’s High School), 1854. Riddarholmen. Architect Johan Fredrik Åbom.
3) Stockholms gymnasium (Stockholm’s High School), 1854. Riddarholmen. Architect Johan Fredrik Åbom.
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| Left: The purpose-built school building is on the right, but was designed to blend in with its neighbor. Right: The purpose-built school building is on the left. |
The central island of Riddarholmen is covered with some of Stockholm’s oldest medieval buildings including an important burial church for the Swedish royalty. Before the Reformation, the church was associated with a monastery. After the Reformation, most of the religious buildings were put to other uses, including one building which eventually was modernized and became a high school in the early 1820‘s. The school outgrew its premises and an additional school building was built next door in the 1850’s. The two buildings were linked over the narrow lane with a bridge.
4) Katarina folkskola & lägre allmänna läroverk (Katarina Folk School and High School), 1858. Södermalm. Architect Johan Fredrik Åbom.
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| Left: As seen from the churchyard. Right: As seen from the street. |
Originally founded in 1654 as the parish school, the building from 1858 is located across the street from the Katarina churchyard on land that I presume originally belonged to the church. The school is built up to the sidewalk but much of the block was never built out; I assume again that the land belonged to the church/school. There is a separate gym building behind the school building—part of the new mission to create not just an educated, but also a healthy populace.
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| The gym building. |
With its simple but classic ornamentation, the building has a somewhat institutional look although its façade lacks the obligatory clock. The scale of the building fits in well with the rest of the neighborhood and there is nothing that screams “school” to today’s eye at a quick glance. The facades are still stuccoed in a restrained classicism, but here the very low base from #2 and #3 above has become higher and more pronounced. The school left in 1905 for larger premises and the building, including the gym, has since been converted into apartments.
5) Maria gamla folkskola (Maria Old Folk School) / Södermalmsskolan (The Södermalm School), 1864 and 1876. Södermalm. Architect Johan Fredrik Åbom.
(As you can see, Åbom was a very prolific architect in mid-19th century Sweden and he designed a lot of schools, among many other buildings, in Stockholm.)
5) Maria gamla folkskola (Maria Old Folk School) / Södermalmsskolan (The Södermalm School), 1864 and 1876. Södermalm. Architect Johan Fredrik Åbom.
(As you can see, Åbom was a very prolific architect in mid-19th century Sweden and he designed a lot of schools, among many other buildings, in Stockholm.)
The Maria parish school was originally housed in a malmgård, or a suburban farmhouse (see #20), until the new school building was completed in 1864. Like his earlier schools, this building features restrained, Classical facades (although today’s façade is much simplified compared to the original drawing, a trend from the 1930’s when much ornamentation was stripped from Stockholm’s facades in an attempt to modernize them), but here the “lightweight” facades sit on a heavier and somewhat pronounced stone base. Both boys and girls attended the school, but each sex had their own entrance, stairwell, and suite of classrooms.
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| Right: Åbom's drawing of the main facade shows that the design was originally much more detailed than what is visible today.*** |
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| Åbom's design for the facade of the 1876 building matches the building's appearance today.*** |
When it was built, this school was on the very outskirts of city development, and the land would have been relatively cheap for the parish to purchase. Unlike many other parish schools, Maria Gamla was centered in the block, providing a large schoolyard around the building. Today, the schoolyard sits higher than the surrounding streets, but I think this has more to do with more modern streets being sunk down for easier road grades than a desire for a lofty school building. These buildings still house a school; the facades are in need of renovation.
6) Manillaskolan (The Manilla School) / Campus Manilla, 1864. Djurgården. Architect Johan Adolf Hawerman.
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| Left: The tower is currently under scaffolding so I have included a photo from the building's owner's website.*6 |
Sweden’s first school for deaf, dumb, and blind children was founded in 1809 in an existing building on the site. Manilla was a boarding school, otherwise the location well outside of the city wouldn’t have been practical. Amazingly, this area is still largely a leafy park and a favorite for Sunday strolls. A new, stately building was built to accommodate the growing student population. The school was originally funded by donations and volunteer labor until it became a state-financed school in the 1930’s, making the beautiful and unusually large and grand building even more impressive.
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| Manilla's auditorium ** |
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| Manilla's gym (left) and auxiliary classroom building (right) |
7) Högre lärarinneseminariet (The Teacher’s College), 1872. Östermalm. Architect EG Sjöberg.
This building was technically a college and not a school, but I am including it because a) it was a teacher’s college, b) it has an important history, and c) its placement in the cityscape is interesting.
This teacher’s college was the first in Sweden to educate women—a hugely important step for women out into the working world as well as an important step in providing teachers for the mushrooming number of schools being founded around the country, though these teachers mainly went on to teach at girls’ schools.
This school sits on a podium above the street and is freestanding, though the neighboring buildings crowd in on the school. Like the older building at #5, the classical facades have been simplified, but the institutional nature of this building is still apparent in how it sits, rarefied, above the street. The interior featured a glass skylight over an atrium corridor. Selma Lagerlöf, another of Sweden’s famous authors and winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature, was educated as a teacher at this college. The building has been converted into apartments.
This teacher’s college was the first in Sweden to educate women—a hugely important step for women out into the working world as well as an important step in providing teachers for the mushrooming number of schools being founded around the country, though these teachers mainly went on to teach at girls’ schools.
This school sits on a podium above the street and is freestanding, though the neighboring buildings crowd in on the school. Like the older building at #5, the classical facades have been simplified, but the institutional nature of this building is still apparent in how it sits, rarefied, above the street. The interior featured a glass skylight over an atrium corridor. Selma Lagerlöf, another of Sweden’s famous authors and winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature, was educated as a teacher at this college. The building has been converted into apartments.
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| The college's interior atrium *** |
8) Hedvig Eleonora folkskola (Hedvig Eleonora Folk School) / Lilla Hedvig skola, Linnéskolan (Little Hedvig School, Linné School), 1876. Östermalm. Architect unknown.
I haven’t found much information about this school, other than the building was built for a parish school which later moved to another nearby location. Only the high floor-to-ceiling height reveals that this structure wasn’t built as an apartment building. The building wraps the corner and has the simple classicism of the other schools that I have presented so far, but it blends very well into the cityscape as it is built up to the sidewalk and doesn’t have any revealing details. Today, this building has been converted into apartments.
9) Högre latinläroverket å Norrmalm (Norrmalm Classical College Prep High School) / Norra Latin (North Latin), 1876. Norrmalm. Architect Helgo Zetterwall.
9) Högre latinläroverket å Norrmalm (Norrmalm Classical College Prep High School) / Norra Latin (North Latin), 1876. Norrmalm. Architect Helgo Zetterwall.
Norra Latin is Stockholm’s first state-funded palace-like college prep high school. It was designed by one of the most fashionable architects of the time, and the King attended the opening ceremony. Strict, sparsely detailed classicism had now given way to Renaissance Revival splendor.
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| Zetterwall's drawing of the facade.** |
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| Norra Latin's atrium.**** |
and the round bulge at the back is a large auditorium. The auditorium shape was inspired by Romanesque church apses and set a precedent for many of Stockholm’s (and Sweden’s) future high schools. The interior also features frescoes by the era’s most well-known artists.
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| Left: The auditorium from the exterior. Right: Inside the auditorium.** |
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| Norra Latin's plan. Interestingly, the auditorium is called a "prayer hall" on the drawing, which explains why the interior is so chuch-like.*** |
The front façade features a clock in the middle of the central jutting volume; the façade exudes a learned academia of the best kind. The building sits in the middle of a huge park just a few blocks from the Central Station. The grounds are enclosed with a well-preserved cast-iron fence featuring the same six-pointed stars as the façade, separating the schoolyard from the public park across the street. The grounds are on street level, but the school building’s base is high and forbidding, setting the school on a higher plane than the surrounding buildings.
While this school wasn’t included in the finalized plan for Norrmalm, it had been included in Wallström and Rudberg’s earlier plan. It’s interesting that the idea for the prominent placement of a school in this location lived on for several decades even when it had been left out of the approved plan. This building is still a school, but now it is attended by younger children (although it was used for a conference center for a couple of decades before it became a school again).
Norra Latin set the pattern for Stockholm’s state-funded high schools: a stately palace for learning set back from the road in the middle of an enclosed park and providing a verdant break in the otherwise dense urban fabric.
10) Djurgårdsskolan (Djurgården School), 1878. Djurgården. Architect Axel Kumlin.
While this school wasn’t included in the finalized plan for Norrmalm, it had been included in Wallström and Rudberg’s earlier plan. It’s interesting that the idea for the prominent placement of a school in this location lived on for several decades even when it had been left out of the approved plan. This building is still a school, but now it is attended by younger children (although it was used for a conference center for a couple of decades before it became a school again).
Norra Latin set the pattern for Stockholm’s state-funded high schools: a stately palace for learning set back from the road in the middle of an enclosed park and providing a verdant break in the otherwise dense urban fabric.
10) Djurgårdsskolan (Djurgården School), 1878. Djurgården. Architect Axel Kumlin.
The older Djurgårdsskolan (see #1 above) was much too small for the 220 students in attendance, and a new, much larger school was built on a hill overlooking the shipbuilding neighborhood. The hilltop location was considered especially healthy for children due to the sea breeze. Like its predecessor, this school was built of wood and with its gingerbread trim has a distinct residential character, though its size is more monumental than most wooden houses. This building is still a school today.
11) Hedvig Eleonora folkskola (Hedvig Eleonora Folk School), 1884. Östermalm. Architect Kumlien & Kumlien.
11) Hedvig Eleonora folkskola (Hedvig Eleonora Folk School), 1884. Östermalm. Architect Kumlien & Kumlien.
Parish school #8 moved into yet another, though larger, purpose-built building. This L-shaped school building is classical but has more ornament than the earlier parish-funded folk schools. Again, it is the higher ceilings and larger windows that reveal that this building was not built as a regular apartment building; otherwise, its presence up to the sidewalk and its detailing blend in with the rest of the apartment development in the area. This building is still a school.
12) Gustav Vasa folkskola (Gustav Vasa Folk School) / Gustav Vasa skola (Gustav Vasa School), 1886. Vasastan. Architect Kumlien & Kumlien.
12) Gustav Vasa folkskola (Gustav Vasa Folk School) / Gustav Vasa skola (Gustav Vasa School), 1886. Vasastan. Architect Kumlien & Kumlien.
Another L-shaped parish school by the Kumlien brothers, this school also features restrained classical facades. The school is built out to the sidewalk and is very integrated into the cityscape. A separate gym building also sits on the lot line at the back of the block.
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| Left: The separate gym building lies at the back of the block. Right: A peak into the schoolyard in the interior of the block. |
There is not much to hint that it is a school besides being a large building with only one very prominently placed entrance as well as its tall windows and high ceilings.
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| Stairwell--not shabby for a parish school.** |
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| Lundgren's map from 1885 includes every existing building in Stockholm and shows that the school was placed in almost empty territory. I've marked the school's location in red.***** |
13) Beskowska skolan (The Beskow School), 1887. Östermalm. Architects Isaeus & Sandell, G Wickman, and H J Kumlen.
This private school educated children from the highest social classes including King Gustaf V and several princes. Its alumni also include two prime ministers and several board members of the Swedish Academy. Given its clientele, it is perhaps not surprising that the school’s architecture was a complete departure from that of the parish schools. Its Romanesque arches remind one of the lavish high school #9 above and the bare bricks above the arches and on the upper stories usher in a new stylistic era och brick architecture. Under the eaves, a row of hand-painted murals between windows are a sure sign of that the Arts & Crafts movement with its emphasis on handmade (instead of manufactured) ornamentation.
14) Kungsholms folkskola (Kungsholmen’s Folk School), 1888. Kungsholmen. Architect Isaeus & Sandahl.
At its height, this school was the largest in Europe and possibly in the world. It had more than a kilometer of hallways, was attended by 4000 students, and employed 110 teachers. The parish school occupied its own block at the very edge of the parish—very few buildings existed out here at the time. The school buildings extended to the lot line and thus integrated smoothly into the future urban context that would be built up around them. However, a very large, open schoolyard (Sweden’s largest) occupied the middle of the block.
The original building was built around two sides of the block. A few years later, a new wing was built around the remaining sides of the block. The newer wing was demolished in the 1990’s and that land, including much of the schoolyard, is now developed into apartment buildings.
The remaining original building has relatively simple, classical facades much like the earlier parish schools. However, a slightly jutting, high central pediment with clock (now replaced with a logo) gave the building more authority and an institutional character (originally the tower was the only part of the building with four stories, the attic story was added later). This remaining building is now an office and also houses part of the city’s cultural school.
The original building was built around two sides of the block. A few years later, a new wing was built around the remaining sides of the block. The newer wing was demolished in the 1990’s and that land, including much of the schoolyard, is now developed into apartment buildings.
The remaining original building has relatively simple, classical facades much like the earlier parish schools. However, a slightly jutting, high central pediment with clock (now replaced with a logo) gave the building more authority and an institutional character (originally the tower was the only part of the building with four stories, the attic story was added later). This remaining building is now an office and also houses part of the city’s cultural school.
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| The architects' facade drawing shows that the fourth story was added later and that the central pavilion was once more prominent.*** |
15) Katarina söder folkskola (Katarina South Folk School) / Katarina södra skola (Katarina South School), 1888. Södermalm. Architect Anders Bergström.
16) Högre realläroverket i Stockholm (Stockholm College Prep High School) / Norra Real (North College Prep High School), 1891. Norrmalm. Architect Per Emanuel Werming.
This building is a twin of Södra Latin (see #17 below). The facades of this state-funded high school are a Victorian amalgamation of heavy brick Renaissance Revival with some medieval details as well as some lighter Gothic detailing for good measure—the architectural styling might be a bit confused, but the composition manages to work and the building exudes a learned authority as well as a castle-like atmosphere—a “fortress of knowledge”. A clocktower and a prominent central volume proclaim the school as an important institution, and some ceramic decorations including the “torch of knowledge” lend some color to the composition. Rich brick detailing, including six-sided stars, make for interesting and lively facades.
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| Left: Norra Real's auditorium is currently under scaffolding, but look to its twin under #17 below. Right: The school's plan drawing clearly shows the auditorium bulb.** |
This school is situated in the middle of a park a few steps up from the street—just enough to separate the school from the cares of the everyday world and put it on a higher plane of learning. The schoolyard is surrounded by the original cast-iron fence with six-sided star ornamentation, a symbol that is repeated from #9 above. A separate gymnasium in the same style is placed off to the side in the school yard. The caretaker, janitor, and gardener all had apartments in the building, but the principal was given a residence (probably the building adjacent to the gym, but I’m not 100% sure, possibly the residence has been demolished) on the premises. Norra Real is still a high school.
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| Left: Norra Real's gym. Right: Adjacent to the gym is another auxilary building that I am guessing was the principal's house. |
17) Högre allmänna läroverket å Södermalm (Södermalm General College Prep High School) / Södra Latin Gymnasium (South Latin High School), 1891. Södermalm. Architect Per Emanuel Werming.
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| Left: The auditorium's exterior. Right: The auditorium's interior.** |
The building sits in the middle of its own park so awkwardly high above the street that you can’t see the building from the sidewalk. While the park was, I believe, originally raised a bit over the surrounding blocks, the extreme height today has to do with the cutting down of the street at a later date.
A separate gym building is now connected to the main building with a catwalk.
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| Left: The separate gym building. |
Södermalm had long been the home to Stockholm's poorest, and the neighborhood was often neglected by the city in comparison to other areas. With this high school, Södermalm was finally receiving equal treatment to other, wealthier parts of the city. Södra Latin is still a high school.
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| You wouldn't associate these sumptuous interiors with a school on the "wrong side of the tracks."** |
18) Johannes folkskola (Johannes Folk School) / Johannes skola (Johannes School), 1891. Norrmalm. Architect Carl Möller.
Johannes was a new parish due to the ever-expanding city, and interestingly, the school was built by the same architect as the church.
When this parish school was built, it was so far out of town that it was surrounded by countryside. The area was nicknamed Siberia because it was so far north of town.
When this parish school was built, it was so far out of town that it was surrounded by countryside. The area was nicknamed Siberia because it was so far north of town.
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| A photo from 1896 shows that the school sat by itself well outside of the city.*** |
The school occupies an entire block, but the various buildings including a separate gym, a freestanding villa (presumably for the principal), and a later classroom annex are built out to the street, leaving a mostly enclosed but spacious interior schoolyard.
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| Left: The building on the left is the original school building while the building on the right is an annex. Right: The principal's villa. |
Now it wasn’t just the state-funded high schools that were fortresses of knowledge; even this parish school is fortress-like with its “impenetrable” stone base and brick towers. The medieval castle theme is continued in details like evocative iron hinges and tie rods (while the hinges are functional, the tie rods are almost certainly purely decorative). In the vein of the Arts & Crafts movement, the Johannes school facades also feature a number of small, hand-painted murals over door openings and covering blind windows.
The main façade features a central tower with clock, now gone. Even though the architecture had stylistically moved away from the classicism of institutional buildings from earlier in the century, the clock still served to symbolize the institutional nature of the building. A round stairwell tower at the back of the building echoes the round auditoriums from #9, 16, and 17 above, albeit with a different program.
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| Möller's plan for Johannes School clearly shows the round stairwell bulb at the back.*** |
19) Maria folkskola (Maria Folk School) / Mariaskolan (Maria School), 1893. Södermalm. Architect Ernst Haegglund.
This school was U-shaped with its two back wings built out to the street and the front façade slightly set back from the street. This front façade is further separated from the street by a cast-iron fence with the same six-sided star ornamentation that is found in #9, 16, and 17 above. This is the first time I have seen the star symbol on an elementary school, the others were high schools. The same can be said for the torches of knowledge that grace the front tower—similar to those found on #16 and 17 above, but on an elementary school instead of a high school. Clearly the state-funded high schools were serving as precedents for the locally-financed parish schools.
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| Left: The original drawing only shows one stairwell jutting into the interior schoolyard, but two were built.*** |
20) Katarina norra folkskola (Katarina North Folk School) / Katarina norra skola (Katarina North School), 1895. Södermalm. Architect A W Bergström.
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| Left: Katarina Norra seen from the front. Right: View to the back of the school from the Katarina churchyard. |
Like #4 above, this parish school sits today just across the street from the Katarina churchyard and was probably part of the original church grounds. Katarina Norra is another castle-like folk school with a stone base and a brick body with “towers” in the middle and ends of the main façade. One of the side towers features a clock.
21) Brummerska skolan (The Brummer School) / Stockholm International School, 1897. Norrmalm. Architect Sam Kjellberg.
The Brummer School was a private girls’ school. Like the other private school on this list, #13, this school is built out to the sidewalk and has a very cramped schoolyard in the middle of the block. Other than signage, there’s not much about this façade that proclaims it a school institution; the building blends in well with the surroundings and could easily be mistaken for an apartment building. The ceilings aren’t even particularly high and the windows aren’t particularly tall. This school has undergone an extreme simplification of its facades, and while the stone base and the balcony above the entry remain, the stuccoed stories above give a much lighter impression than the original design. The building now houses an international school.
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| Left: The extravagant balcony and the stone base are original. Right: This photo shows that the facade has otherwise been simplified.***** |
Thoughts and Conclusions
It is a bit ironic that the high schools sit in large, leafy parks while many of the elementary schools have compact, mid-block playgrounds. This is a result of the funding structures behind the different levels of schooling where local parishes funded the elementary schools while the Swedish state government funded the high schools. The high school grounds, however, provide a green oasis in the otherwise dense urban fabric and today they also feature ball fields, a much-needed but very scarce resource in the central areas of the city.
Schools in Stockholm (and in other Swedish cities) generally became larger, more visible, and more lavish in their façade ornamentation as the 19th century progressed. Even though folk schools were long known as “poor schools,” they were a symbol of an upwardly mobile society. There was still an extreme amount of poverty in 19th century Sweden, but a wider range of opportunities were beginning to open up for the lower classes. Access to education was just one side of this overarching societal trend.
These schools from the 1800’s symbolize another broader trend where civil institutions became more important within Swedish society and thus more visible in the city landscape. Previously, the royalty, the nobility, and the church had been the most visible institutions and powers in the city. In the early 1800’s, the military became more of a visible presence. In the middle and at the end of the century, civil institutions including schools, hospitals, government buildings, and cultural institutions such as museums became more visible and exerted a powerful presence in the cityscape. As schools became larger, more visible, and more extravagantly detailed, they symbolized not only an emerging democracy but also the emerging importance of and emphasis on education in the new, modern society.
Sources:
Fredrik Bedoire, Stockholms byggnader, Arkitektur och stadsbild (2012)
Hans Albin Larsson, Mot bättre vetande, En svensk skolhistoria (2011)
Hjördis Kristenson, Skolhuset idé och form (2005)
Jadwiga Krupinska, Skolarkitektur – Formar den oss? (2022)
Olof Hultin, Bengt Johansson, Johan Mårtelius, & Rasmus Waern, The Complete Guide to Architecture in Stockholm (2009)
https://skellefteamuseum.se/itc-content/uploads/2021/01/folkskolevaskan-faktablad.pdf
https://www.so-rummet.se/kategorier/folkskolan#
https://sv.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kategori:Ej_l%C3%A4ngre_existerande_skolor_i_Stockholm
https://sv.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johan_Fredrik_%C3%85bom
https://stockholmskallan.stockholm.se/post/8975
https://www.svenskakyrkan.se/Sve/Bin%C3%A4rfiler/Filer/5D8F273E-A695-4DFB-A3B2-923396DFB286.pdf
https://www.sfv.se/vara-fastigheter/sverige/stockholms-lan/riddarholmen/gymnasie-husen-pa-riddarholmen
https://sv.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stockholms_gymnasium
https://sv.wikipedia.org/wiki/Katarina_l%C3%A4gre_allm%C3%A4nna_l%C3%A4roverk
https://sv.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maria_gamla_skola
https://www.sfv.se/vara-fastigheter/sverige/stockholms-lan/oevrigt/manillaskolan-stockholm
https://sv.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manillaskolan
https://sv.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linn%C3%A9skolan
https://sv.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norra_Latin
https://sok.stadsarkivet.stockholm.se/Databas/skolregistret/Visa/djurgardsskolan/90aa817c-6971-462e-9eff-5bacc19631f6?sidindex=45
https://sv.wikipedia.org/wiki/Djurg%C3%A5rdsskolan
https://sv.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hedvig_Eleonora_skola
https://sok.stadsarkivet.stockholm.se/Databas/skolregistret/Visa/gustav-vasa-skola/62385c70-0c8f-4aa0-b06b-d99749f6dfdc?sidindex=114
https://sv.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beskowska_skolan
https://sok.stadsarkivet.stockholm.se/Databas/skolregistret/Visa/gustav-vasa-skola/62385c70-0c8f-4aa0-b06b-d99749f6dfdc?sidindex=114
https://sv.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kungsholms_folkskola
https://sv.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norra_Real
https://sv.wikipedia.org/wiki/S%C3%B6dra_Latin
https://sv.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johannes_skola
https://sv.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brummerska_skolan
Images:
All images are my own except:
* Hans Albin Larsson, Mot bättre vetande, En svensk skolhistoria (2011)
** Hjördis Kristenson, Skolhuset idé och form (2005)
*** https://sv.wikipedia.org
**** https://www.byggindustrin.se/alla-nyheter/arets-bygge/omojligt-projekt-nar-140-arig-byggnad-blev-skola-igen/
***** https://stockholmskallan.stockholm.se/post/32744
*6 https://www.sfv.se/vara-fastigheter/sverige/stockholms-lan/oevrigt/manillaskolan-stockholm
*7 https://stockholmskallan.stockholm.se/post/8975
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